Thirty smallholding Kenyan farmers on Tuesday embarked on a four-day journey across the country to spread agricultural awareness, and showcase their vision of the ideal agricultural system for both Kenya and the African continent.
During the arduous four-day journey, the farmers, from Kiambu, Meru, Machakos and Makueni counties, will engage county leaders and locals as they exhibit produce and share knowledge and seeds with their counterparts, a Green Peace press release stated.
The farmers’ journey will include stops in Machakos, Makueni and Nairobi counties with a clear message ahead of World Food Day.
“We, as farmers and consumers from around Kenya, call upon the Government of Kenya and International aid donors to listen to our demands, to move away from conventional agriculture and support ecological farming. Conventional agriculture has failed us and will continue to do so as climate change worsens,” stated the farmers in a demand letter written to the local governments of Kenya and International Aid Donors based in the country.
The farmers say they have decided to support each other because they have received insufficient support from authorities and donors.
Instead a lot of support has gone into industrial agriculture – a fatally flawed agricultural model that places farmers in a cycle of debt as well as reliance on harmful and expensive chemicals and seeds, according to Greenpeace.
With support from The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), Greenpeace Africa, The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN), the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) and The Kenya Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (KSSF), the farmers will use this resilience journey to showcase and prove the benefits of ecological farming.
Ecological farming not only supports local farmers’ livelihoods, it also, “enhances their economic empowerment, is conscious of environmental stability and builds community resilience to adverse effects of climate change,” said Martin Muriuki, Executive Director at the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE).
The farmers believe that the solution to addressing hunger in Kenya lies within the country’s borders.
With the right support, they can feed Kenyans with healthy, nutritious food that is grown ecologically, they argue.
Ecological farming is not a new practice. It combines local farmers’ knowledge with the most recent scientific evidence to create new technologies and practices that increase yields without negatively impacting the environment.
Some of the smallholding farmers are already putting it into practise by building on traditional agriculture methods based on local knowledge.
“The farmers’ appeal comes at a very critical time. The current food system is broken, the environment is damaged and the current industrial agricultural model has left thousands hungry and dependent on technologies that are unable to withstand dramatic weather changes while simultaneously lining the pockets of a few corporates,” stated Greenpeace Africa’s senior Food for Life campaign manager, Nokutula Mhene.
The effects of climate change are starting to bite. Kenyan meteorological services have warned that La Niña is approaching, meaning that many parts of Kenya will experience reduced rains in 2016.
There is an urgent need to support smallholding family farmers to practice ecological farming through access to irrigation and access to affordable organic inputs and protection of local farmers against middlemen exploitation.
The future, said Anne Maina from KBioC, “is in practicing agroecology and not synthetic chemical driven farming”.
Ecological farming is a bouquet of techniques to produce environmentally-sustainable and healthy food for local people.
“It is a proven agricultural production method that has at its core resilience, equitability, food sovereignty, and environmental sustainability. We call upon Governments and Donors to put in place mechanisms that allow for a paradigm shift towards ecological farming,” said Greenpeace Africa’s Executive Director, Njeri Kabeberi.
At the end of the journey, the farmers will hand over a letter to International aid agencies in Nairobi. The letter will outline priority areas in the agricultural sector that agencies should invest in.