By Leaders Who Failed
Copyright thedailymail
NAKURU, Kenya, Sep 19 – Farmers in settlement schemes around Mau Forest Complex have been urged to grow food forests on their farms as a way of conserving the environment and enhancing nutrition.
Conservation experts and agro-ecologists said sustainable food production would conserve the remaining forest cover, increase tree cover on farmlands and help tackle global warming.
World Resoures Insitute in Africa (WRI) Food Program Director, Robert Mbeche said food forests were highly beneficial to farmers as they would produce food and feed for people at their livestock.
He added that agro-forests, which are a mixture of fruit, fodder, exotic and indigenous trees inter-cropped with food plants which mimic natural ecosystem would help the community in terms of nutrition.
Speaking at Seeds Savers Network Learning Center in Gilgil Sub-County of Nakuru during a training for lead farmers, Mbeche said WRI’s main role was to support people to live well with nature and reduce the impacts of climate change.
“One of WRI’s programs is on restoration of degraded lands in the greater Rift Valley and its key activity is growing trees that allow restoration of degraded lands,” he said.
Mbeche added that besides protecting ecosystems, farmers need to have sustainable food thus the need for raining on sustainable food production practices such as agro-ecology.
“If farmlands are not properly restored and food is not produced sustainably, then people might invade forests and damage wetlands in search of something to eat,” he said.
He said WRI brought together restoration champions and farmers from Mariashoni, Mauche and Mau Narok areas of Molo and Njoro sub-counties that are being supported to grow trees under TerraFund Project to build their capacity to produce food sustainably using organic solutions.
“Agro-ecology goes beyond sustainable food production to include gender integration and equity in the way food is produced, sold and consumed, It also takes care of ecosystems,” said Mbeche.
Seed Savers Network (SSN)Head of programmes, Julia Kamau said the farmers were also being taught how to control soil erosion through proper contouring since most of their farms were sloppy.
She observed that issues of seeds were the foundation of food system especially for farmer in Molo and Njoro counties whose main cash crops is potatoes.
“Stakeholders in agriculture cannot talk about sustainable food production without the mention of seed,” she said
Kamau said uncrupulous business people were taking advantage of farmers and minting money from them due to perennial potato seeds shortage.
“Access to clean potato seeds is a challenge, therefore, we have trained the lead farmers how to select and store seeds to ensure they have clean planting materials,” she said.
Kamau said SSN in collaboration with WRI targeted to train more than 500 farmers on sustainable food production and the use of bio-inputs.
