Food security in Western Kenya has been given a massive boost after fundraising from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the rest of the agriculture industry.
The £200,000 raised from the Africa 100 appeal is now supporting a new project which is benefiting more than 12,000 people.
The cash is helping farmers to grow stronger, disease-free crops of cassava, the staple food crop which is consumed every day in 64 per cent of households across the region. The project was started by charity FARM-Africa because the crop was hit badly by a new form of mosaic virus which left many people dependent on food aid. The Cassava Project, which has been designed to be sustainable, has since set up 107 farmer-marketing groups which promotes the planting of higher yielding, mosaic virus-resistant varieties of cassava to improve farmers’ agronomy of the vegetable.
NFU head of communications Sarah Whitelock, who led the Africa 100 Appeal for the NFU, said: “We were really pleased with the amount of money we were able to raise and this latest update from FARM-Africa just goes to show the hard work is now really paying off.
“Cassava has a short shelf life so the project will also fund two new factories to turn the vegetable into dried chips and flour. This will increase the flexibility of the crop giving it a new market in local food industries and potential as an animal feed.
Richard Macdonald, board member of FARM-Africa and former NFU director general, said “This was my first visit to a FARM-Africa project. I was hugely impressed. By introducing new varieties of Cassava and sweet potato, FARM-Africa had at a sweep trebled yields and reduced risk by bringing in disease free plants. The follow up replication and spreading of the new technology was like a tide of income improvement in a whole district-quite fantastic. Local farmers were so grateful, and what compounded the benefits is that this is an area where 20 per cent of the adults have HIV and many are widowed. I couldn’t have been more impressed and left with an over-riding feeling of “we must do more,”
