Community Led Irrigation for Food Security and Wealth Creation

In Kenya, there exist many irrigation schemes setup by government and developing partners and due to lack of involvement of the community in designing and management of the project. Almost all of them face difficulties after funding ended. SACDEP has had a successful experience in Implementing small scale Community Led Irrigation Projects. The experience gained and lessons learnt will be brought on board into this project. The Project will be sustainable. This is because all the resources needed for vibrant agribusiness in Gikindu are in a abundance. Land, labour, water markets are in plenty yet the population is food nutrition and income insecure. This paradox will be address simply by moving water into the land. There will enough food for consumption and surplus for sale. The surplus food will be processed and added value then sold out to the markets. This will be through the cottage industries. Therefore the communities will have an additional source of income. The training on savings and credit (Banks without Walls) BWW will help the farmers boost their economic standards. The major outputs of the project will be:- - To initiate and run a self sustaining water supply and agricultural production scheme involving 1990 farmers - To building a strong agribusiness community structure capable of running and expanding project from the original 50 members into 300 in 3 years. - To establish and run 5 cottage industries in the region processing the surplus food as a result of the irrigation. - To establish 15 savings and schemes called bank with out walls or BWW, with a portfolio of Ksh 500,000 per year. Upon setting the irrigation scheme therefore, there will be a lot of self employment in the population. The area has many towns nearby who can form consumer outlet .They include Sagana, Thika, Nairobi, Machakos, and smaller ones like Matuu and Ruiru. Youth in this area experiences heavy unemployment. Agriculture is their best way to generate self employment. As said what is lacking is just move the water from the river to the land and with a tarmac road passing just next to Gikindu food export will be easy and economical. Once this Project is up and running, it will be used to "Benchmark for other regions facing Food insecurity in Kenya. It will prove that it is possible to avoid Emergency food Relief, be Food Secure and create employment within the rural areas tapping on Agriculture. SACDEP-Kenya undertook an economic survey. The survey showed that the division has a population of 11,945 People, with a population density of 153 persons per km square. Even though Gikindu division has a great potential to produce sufficient food, it‘s one of the areas in Central Province that receive Emergence Food Relief. This initiative aims at undertaking the following activities to help realise food security. • Organize the Communities of Gikindu into a strong CBO led by local leaders. • Provide practical and theoretical skills to the Gikindu community CBO in the establishment and management of Community Led irrigation water supply and irrigation to over 924Hectares. • Construct water abstraction weir and divert the permitted amount of water amounting to 6,532.24 cubic metres per day • To establish a 38.2 km irrigation water piping. • Initiate and run a self sustaining water supply and agricultural production scheme by linking up 2284 family farms with water and irrigation the same • Carry out technical training to the farmers in the matter of Community Led irrigation scheme establishment, sustainability and management • Establish and run 5 food processing packaging and marketing facility each composed of; a sorting, grading, packaging shed weighing, a recording equipment meeting rooms for farmers. • Establish 15 marketing groups covering 450 farmer members • Establish 15 savings and schemes called bank with out walls or BWW, each BBW achieving a savings and loan portfolio of ksh 500,000 per year. • Specifically establish 15 youth processing and marketing groups and ensure self employment for 150 youth members There will enough food for consumption and surplus for sale. The surplus food will be processed and added value then sold out to the markets. This will be through the cottage industries. Therefore the communities will have an additional source of income. The training on savings and credit (Banks without Walls) BWW will help the farmers boost their economic standards. The major outputs of the project will be:- - To initiate and run a self sustaining water supply and agricultural production scheme involving 1990 farmers - To building a strong agribusiness community structure capable of running and expanding project from the original 50 members into 300 in 3 years. - To establish and run 5 cottage industries in the region processing the surplus food as a result of the irrigation. - To establish 15 savings and schemes called bank with out walls or BWW, with a portfolio of Ksh 500,000 per year. Due to the increased income levels, the lives of the communities will be improved. This will be in form of improved shelter, clothing, feeding and health. The communities will grow many varieties of food and hence have improved health. The surplus money got from the sale of food will be used to educate the young ones and therefore improved education SACDEP-Kenya has been implementing Sustainable Agriculture project since 1993 (19 years) to date, more than 100,000 families had their live changed positively. At the moment the organization is working with 11,300 families spread in 4 provinces and or in 10 Counties in Kenya. Within this area there are 2 Community Led (WENYEWES) irrigation schemes under implementation, One such project has been positively completed in the semi arid Rumuruti of Laikipia county and SACDEP will draw this experience into the proposed Gikindu project Over a period of years, SACDEP Kenya has worked with communities through organized groups who are trained and equipped with knowledge to address Sustainable Agriculture projects the community. In this scenario, all the groups must meet a specific gender balance, which is also requirement in the newly adopted Kenyan constitution. In this case all the groups who form the CBO in Gikindu have a well mix of member base of both men, women and the youths. In the current 30 working, self help groups in the Gikindu CBO the women and youths forms 78% of the total member ship. Thus, for any change achieved women and youths will get a big share, which is to an advantage since there is more impact at household level. SACDEP-Kenya is looking for Partners who can support in mobilizing or making available financial support to implement this project. We believe that it will make a huge impact towards achievement of food security in many regions of Kenya and Eastern Africa as it will be a Case study. is looking for Partners to help in raising or making available financial resources to implement this Project.