Restoring organic farming in Kiirua-Meru, Kenya

by Kandi

13 August 2022

One of the main reasons why I’m restoring and conserving forests is to improve livelihoods and nutrition in my community. Forests host considerable biodiversity and contribute to the general health and wellbeing of their surroundings. For instance, forest conservation enables adequate rainfall to maximize the quality of agricultural outputs, as well as provide oxygen to all living beings.

We have partnered with Kenya Environmental Action Network (KEAN), Greenhouse Communications and Mama Day School to make this initiative a success. As a result of this collaboration, we have established a ‘Bustani Garden’ – an organic vegetable garden within our eco-village. This program aims at enabling children aged 5–15 years to learn how to establish kitchen gardens, appreciate agriculture as a source of income and career pathway, and encourage environmental conservation through organic farming.

***Gordon and Tracy guide Mama Day kids on how to transplant vegetables from nurseries to a vertical garden.***

The involvement of children throughout the project, has enhanced a great sense of ownership and learning, especially since the garden is already growing rapidly after just a month and a half. The children have so far learned how to prepare nursery beds, plant seeds in the beds, care for seedlings through watering and weeding, develop improvised vertical gardens that help utilize garden space and transplant seedlings into the vertical gardens.

Kandi teaches kids to establish a vertical garden with locally available resources such as reused sacks, as well as to transplant spinach from the nursery into the garden.

We hope this garden will improve nutrition and restoration efforts both in the school and our community as a whole.

The Future is Green 🙂