Farmer on Fire Ltd has launched a capacity-building initiative towards food security, economic empowerment and climate sustainability of school-going children and women in Arid and Semi Arid Land areas in Kenya.

Under the initiative, the firm aims to support women, youth and other marginalised groups with targeted technical, financial and entrepreneurial capacity building and support.

This is to promote their engagement, ownership, employment opportunities and incomes in agribusiness, thereby benefiting individual women and bolstering development for the arid region. 

Famer on Fire CEO Wangari Kuria said the initiative aims to support climate-resilient agriculture and livelihoods in vulnerable pastoralist counties in Kenya.

It will help hundreds of smallholders intensify, diversify and reduce the risks in maize-based farming and over-reliance on pastoralism through improved end-to-end agronomic support, extension services, small and medium enterprise development, supporting governance frameworks and increased financial investment with a gender and social inclusion lens. 

“The programme will support the youth and women in the ASAL areas to  implement agribusiness gardens of indigenous vegetables that include mushrooms that can be scaled and or replicated as well as train them on digital marketing skills of their farm produce, using online platforms to reach a broader market,” Kuria said. 

The training will also encompass harvesting and collecting rainwater, building concreate water reservoirs within the homestead, designing and training on eco-cook stoves to promote the conservation of trees and reduce health-related challenges. 

The initiative will also cover training on BSFLarvae production which provides an affordable protein source for animal feeds to ensure that their livestock still gets necessary nutrition.

This, as well as green housing and irrigation farming,  with the help of partners, training the marginalised group on the benefits of modern technology which increases efficiency in production.

“We are not trying to change the culture of the pastoralist community, we respect and see the significance of it. However, in the wake of climate change, societies need to adapt to the erratic weather patterns and increased pest infestations leading to climate-related poverty," she said.

"We want to empower these communities to better adapt to these changes,"

According to Kuria, Kenya is at risk of even higher temperatures, shorter growing seasons and more extreme droughts and floods.

Maize, a staple crop covering up to 75 per cent of cropland in parts of the region, is particularly vulnerable and is projected to face yield declines of 15 per cent among other climate impacts. 

Many of the affected areas already have serious levels of hunger and malnutrition, with the highest burden experienced by women and children from marginalised and vulnerable pastoralist communities.

'If these systems are sustainably diversified, they could contribute to stabilise the regional and global Agrifood systems,” Kuria noted.

According to the United Nations, the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) of Kenya make up to 89 per cent of the country, covering 29 counties and a population of about 16 million people. 

For decades, these areas were marginalised, seen as unproductive, with news on cattle rustling, drought, insecurity and poverty hiding the great potential of the region, especially in the renewable energy sector, tourism and livestock production.