Location

Siaya County

Deliverables

Natural resources conservation

Year

2018

The Soil Protection and Rehabilitation (ProSoil) project in Western Kenya supported by the BMZ One World Without Hunger (SEWOH) initative through GIZ Coordinated by GFA in Siaya County : majority of land users are smallholder farmers. It is to be noted that smallholder farmers produce over 70% of food supplies in Kenya and their land resources are increasingly deteriorating in soil fertility, while the smallholder gross margins are declining due to high input costs. Climate change is an additional threat to rain fed farming, even in these higher potential agro-climatic zones in Kenya. This combination forms a threat to long-term national food security and sustainability of the smallholder farmer’s livelihoods.

The project uses a micro-catchment approach, where on-farm and off-farm Soil Protection and Rehabilitation (SPR) measures are combined, trying to involve all stakeholders within the catchment in and participatory planning, implementation and monitoring of these measures. Through the 6 trained Technicians, the organization promotes on-farm measures where they mobilize, sensitize and train farmer group’s to make an individual commitment through group action plans. They included elements from Conservation Agriculture (mininal tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, intercropping), integrated soil fertility management, push-pull technology, Integrated Soil fertility management (ISFM), disease, pest and weed control, and agroforestry. Model farmers through cluster groups, promote farmer learning through exchange learning visits in different implementation sites, farmer field days for exposer and ensuring local ownership through continuous capacity building mentoring and coaching activities. Since 2020, The Organization has recruited 4560 farmers organized into 178 farmers groups with 480 Community Resource persons around the 7 sub locations in Ugunja sub county Siaya.