Woensdag 20 Julie 2016

KeFAAS Welcomes GFRAS Consultants

 The team gets highlights at the MoA

  



Forum for Advisory Services Kenya (KeFAAS) was privileged to host Capacity needs assessment GFRAS (Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services) consultants Dr. Alexa Lamm and Dr.Kevan Lamm. While in the country, they held several consultations with different organizations who are key players in extension services, among them were MoA, KARLO, KENAFF, WAF and GIZ. They intended to come up with a global assessment of Rural Advisory Services needs. At the country level they were to assess the capacity needs of KeFAAS, identify their progress, challenges encountered to date and also look at the overall functioning of KeFAAS. 


Together with the other African countries they had visited, they were to consult globally to enable them identify several areas for the assessment. To achieve this task, the team had an assessment tool (questionnaire) which they administered to the members of the County Fora. The tool captured KeFAAS perceptions though being a very new organization.
 
They were also scheduled to meet farmer groups organised by KENAFF in Kimende Kiambu County. The groups are successfully benefiting from KENAFF advisory and entrepreneurship services. The county is a popular source of vegetables like sukuma wiki, cabbages, spinach, carrots to mention, but a few for the lucrative Nairobi market. Kiambu County relies mostly on agriculture and industries to sustain its economy, although majority of residents are small-scale farmers. Among the activities was a potato project whereby KARLO through KENAFF had given the groups clean potato seeds resistant to diseases and would endure the current season harsh cold weather.

 Githuka's Potato plantation and the  community  man-made forest
Trees planted by the community

The farmers had embraced tree planting as a major activity too, this was a project by DANIDA. The groups had planted trees in their farms and one of the farmers had offered the community a piece of land to plant trees. Though the trees are still immature, the community will benefit in future given that trees have numerous economic, social, cultural and ecological values, as they provide essential goods and services including timber, poles, fuel-wood, medicine and a variety of non-wood products. In addition to playing a critical role in supporting the livelihoods of families and the national economy, forests serve as habitat for flora and fauna and as water catchment areas.

They had consultations with the group chair Mr. Peter Githuka and Henry a youth group chair. Both are successful farmers doing horticulture and have greatly benefited from KENAFF services. They said that county enjoys a warm climate with temperatures ranging between 12°C and 18.7°C. The rainfall aggregate for the county is 1000mm each year. The cool climate makes it a conducive for farming. June and July rank as the coldest months while January-March and September-October are the hottest months.

The chairman reported that farmers take all the initiative positively as they attended meetings in large numbers. Currently Mr Githuka is successful farmers and in charge of 25 groups in the community, he feels Agriculture is one of the oldest trade and people need to eat, thus a guaranteed market per se. However, it is unfortunate that majority of the foodstuff in our supermarkets are imported yet we are an agricultural country. With the introduction of formal education, everyone moved to the professional jobs, leaving behind a very big gap in the agricultural sector. In additional that is why we have that big deficit in the sector, and he calls upon many to jump into this sector, which has a huge business potential.

Capacity building interventions have been designed to respond to the lack of awareness, skills, and competency shortfalls in the application of innovations and technologies relating to agriculture. Mr. Githuka through interventions the father of three has been feeding his family comfortably, with his three cows he has managed adopt the biogas technology and has put up a eight cubic meter plant. He has embraced this clean and easy to use cooking fuel and has largely cut the cost of fuel for domestic consumption. 

 
A Lite Biogas Burner
In addition, he practices organic farming whereby he uses the bio-slurry instead of fertilizers. Inside the Bio-gas plant decomposition of the mixture takes place to produce methane gas and the remaining portion of the mixture is send through the outlet of the Bio-gas plant which is known as Bio-slurry. This viscous liquid contains 93% water and 7% percent dry matter (4.5% organic & 2.5 % inorganic). Bio slurry is a ready-made fertilizer containing every nutrient needed for the plant and can be directly used in fields to grow crops which is more effective in comparison to other fertilizers. However, not many farmers are familiar with the advantages of bio-slurry.

Through this success story by KENAFF farmers and many other actors in agricultural extension, KeFAAS will provide a framework that gives confidence to all actors and a clear direction for coordinated service delivery for sustainable growth and development in the agricultural sector in Kenya.

Donderdag 09 Junie 2016

KeFAAS Launch

The Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services – Kenya (KeFAAS) was launched on 22 May 2015 following a two day stakeholder’s workshop in Nyeri. Members resolved to register KeFAAS as a non- Governmental Organization. KeFAAS itself is an umbrella organisation of agricultural advisory services (AAS) providers, actors and stakeholders in Kenya. The mission of KeFAAS is “to build capacity and empower stakeholders along agricultural value-chains through knowledge-sharing, resource mobilization and skills – development for sustainable improvements in agricultural productivity, food and nutrition security and livelihoods”. KeFAAS also takes on its goals, “to develop and promote a coordinated, inclusive and demand-driven agricultural advisory support and service network in Kenya”.
The KeFAAS overall objectives are to:
  • Bring together agricultural advisory services (AAS) actors in Kenya and maintain a directory to the benefit of all stakeholders;
  • Promote the development of AAS networks at the regional, national, and district level;
  • Linking AAS stakeholders in Kenya with CAADP processes and to other networks with similar goals such as the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS);
  • To identify opportunities for sharing and promoting AAS experiences and lessons on best practices among stakeholders;
  • To closely collaborate with AAS education and training institutions;
  • To actively interact with agricultural Research bodies for the development and dissemination of relevant and proven technologies that will meet the needs of value-chain stakeholders.
  • Setting standards and priorities for agriculture Extension and Advisory services in Kenya.
KeFAAS brings together multiple stakeholders in agricultural and rural development at the national level and also at local levels through County and Sub County Chapters. It therefore has the capacity to provide leadership in development of value chain based innovation platforms in target Counties. In addition, KeFAAS as an independent NGO has the potential to partner directly with GIZ to coordinate the development partners’ efforts and input through its member organization.
The immediate activities/priorities
  • Complete review of NASEP (Extension Policy)
  • Operationalisation of KeFAAS (CF)
  • Building competence on new extensionist
  • Policy brief on rethinking extension in Kenya
  • Finalize and enforce extension guidelines and standards
  • Sensitization on new extensionist concept
  • Up-scaling of innovation center concept
  • Establish Knowledge Management platform.
The Chairman of the CF is Bob Muchina and the Focal Point Person Richard Githaiga.

Dinsdag 07 Junie 2016

FORUM FOR AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICES - KENYA (KeFAAS)




 The forum for agricultural advisory services - Kenya (KeFAAS) is a network organization whose core objective is to bring under one framework all players in agricultural extension. The rationale for the proposed network organization is that the sector lacks coordination and consultative machinery resulting into duplication of efforts and resources. Once the organization is operational with network members the sector will be better organized and sharing of information will be achieved.