Enable 1500 Kenyan Rural Farmers for Agribusiness

The Mango Tree Orphan Trust Fund-Kenya has initiated a workable ambitious initiative to boost the livelihoods of 1500 rural farmers through agribusiness. We have launched and continue to implement several agribusiness initiatives with the goal of the project fundraising being $50,000 with $15,915 realized.

The organization organized and rolled out the following activities for the latest quarter:

I.      FARMING ACTIVITIES

The key agribusiness activities here include: goat farming, apiculture, environmental conservation and grafted mango farming. For the quarter under review, the organization planned and accomplished the following activities:

a)        Environment conservation

Climate-smart agriculture impacts positively in the rural households

Fruit trees must also be positioned well in climate change and mitigation processes, household economic empowerment, and nutrition. It is against this backdrop that the project seeks to be a game changer. The project is using fruit trees landscapes as the foundation for the improvement of human mental, physical, economic, and environmental health. The combination of fruit trees and agro-forestry trees plays a critical role in broadening the permaculture principle helping target households in the project area embrace and enjoy the practice of climate-smart agriculture. During the reporting period, the organization distribute 2000 fruit trees and 20000 agroforestry trees to 200 households affecting 10000 people. The support we received goes a long way in improving our environmental health.  

b)       Apiculture

Beekeeping improves crop production immensely, most of the crops that we depend on rely on insects for pollination, and bees cannot be ignoredin this equation with the introduction of beekeeping the bees’ population is steadily increasing in the project area impacting positively crop yields hence improved food security and nutrition.  Honey plays a critical role in the control and management of the corona Virus, other cough-related infections, and a lot of other important human health conditions. During the reporting period 32 farmers were able to harvest 620 kg of honey directly earning income from the bee-keeping venture enabling the target households to improve their household economic status supporting them to meet some of their daily expenses like buying food, and pay school fees to the orphans and vulnerable children.

c)        Gifting a goat project

In response to the devastating effects of dependency, The Mango Tree Orphan Support Trust Kenya is making huge strides in helping communities to learn to walk on their own. During the reporting period, 23 new farmers were trained on goat rearing skills and have received breeding does (female goat), 36 farmers have been inducted on the values of passing on of the gift and were able to pass on 8 breeding does to new farmers stamping authority on the long term sustainability pillar of the project. Through the goat rearing project, farmers can improve their soil fertility by use of goat waste and urine enhancing vegetable production hence improving nutrition, health, and household income through the sale of fresh African leafy vegetables mature goats, and goat milk.

“We thought we were too poor to give but today we are so delighted that we can pass on the gift to our community. The Mango Tree Orphan Support Trust has enabled us to also become donors”, quoted one of the farmers.