Organic agriculture improves health, income for urban farmers

PELUM Kenya Country Coordinator Zachary Makanya (right) with Cshep founder Esther Kiruthi inspecting organic capsicum at Masapa Farm in Kiserian, Kajiado County.

Photo credit: Rachel Kibui | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The Ngong market is located on the outskirts of Kiserian town, which is on the road leading to Ongata Rongai.
  • Stella established the Masapa Organic Farm three years ago following a talk with some doctors.
  • The doctors associated the leukemia with the chemicals used in flower farms, said Stella. 
  • Mr Makanya encourages farmers to bring back indigenous seeds, most of which are facing extinction.

It is Friday at around 8am in Kiserian, Kajiado County.

Stella Njoroge joins two of her employees in harvesting various types of vegetables from her farm.

They start with spinach, then cabbages and capsicum. Some capsicum varieties are red, others yellow while others are green.

They then harvest some basil herbs and tie them in bundles just like the spinach.

This is happening on the weekly Ngong organic market day, which Stella religiously participates in as a seller. The market is located on the outskirts of Kiserian town, which is on the road leading to Ongata Rongai.

Stella established the Masapa Organic Farm three years ago following a talk with some doctors.

"The doctors were talking about a 24-year-old youth who was suffering from leukemia," recalls Stella.

"The medics were tracing the leukemia to the patient's mother who worked at a flower farm when she was expectant.”

Stella Njoroge harvests vegetables at her farm, which she then sells at the Ngong organic market.

Photo credit: Rachel Kibui | Nation Media Group

Chemicals in flower farms

The doctors associated the leukemia with the chemicals used in flower farms, said Stella.

For the next three years, Stella spent her time researching on organic farming.

She visited various farms where organic agriculture is practised to get a feeling of what it is like to engage in this sector. In the meantime, she started feeding her family with organic food, especially vegetables.

She later went to Community Sustainable Agriculture and Healthy Environment Programme (CShep), a Kiserian-based non-governmental organisation which promotes organic farming, and links farmers to markets.

"I spent one week at CShep being trained on different aspects of organic farming," recalls Stella.

Cshep founder and Director Esther Kiruthi says she was working for an organisation which had a five-year project when she interacted with farmers in the area.

After the end of the project, she adds, farmers requested her to keep training them. That was how she founded her organisation.

Joan Nzuki at the Garden Estate organic market.

Photo credit: Rachel Kibui | Nation Media Group

Organic agriculture trainer

Esther is not only a certified organic agriculture trainer, but also an enthusiast of agro-ecology practices and access to safe and healthy food for all.

While engaging with farmers in this sector, she realised that while primarily producing the organic food for their families, they had excess.

This realisation led to the founding of the Ngong organic market.

"We link farmers to markets so that there is no wastage. They earn and provide access to food for those who have no gardens," says Esther.

On this particular Friday, Stella heads to the market and joins tens of other organic farmers selling their produce. 

At the Garden Estate market, farmers gather to sell produce. Theirs is a story of friends who initially had established kitchen gardens at their balconies, backyards and other small spaces, but realised that they were producing more than they could consume.

“We sought training on organic farming and came together so that we could get a market for excess produce,” says Joan Nzuki, the treasurer of Innovative Organic Group of Farms.

Safe food

Many members of this group are urban farmers, 90 of whom have been trained on organic farming but, currently, the active ones are 20.

According to experts, Africa must embrace organic farming as a way of ensuring safe food and keep lifestyle diseases at bay.

Zachary Makanya, the country coordinator for Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Kenya, says farmers practising organic agriculture should work in unity.

PELUM Kenya brings together 57 grassroots organisations spread across 42 counties in the country.

The association is supporting over 2 million farmers across the country to promote ecological organic agriculture and access to safe and healthy food for all.

Every year, PELUM Kenya organises the Green Action Week which seeks to create awareness on the benefits of organic food, both to communities and the environment.

Mr Makanya encourages farmers to bring back indigenous seeds, most of which are facing extinction.

In this era of climate change occasioned by harsh weather conditions, indigenous seeds would be most suitable as they are highly resistant to harsh weather patterns, he notes.