OUTREACH WORK IN KAMARA DIVISION IN
NAKURU DISTRICT AND TENGES DIVISION IN BARINGO DISTRICT
Kamara Area-Based Programme
Kamara Division, is in an agricultural high potential area and
has a population of 60,000 people with approximately 6,500 small-holder
farmers.
The significant activities being done in ABP Kamara are:
• Facilitation of formation of A.I. scheme in Kamara to improve
the Dairy cattle breeds of farmers. This is expected to raise the
levels of milk production.Through development of marketing channels,
an increase in the income levels of the dairy farmers in Kamara
Division will be realised.
• Temperate fruit development through formation of groups
with farmers interest in temperate fruits production in the location.
The groups will go through training on temperate fruit production.
This will help in increasing production and result in increased
standards of living through increased income from the sale of fruits.
• Carrying out PAR (Participatory Action Research) with two
communities to assess the effectiveness of this process in addressing
the needs of the rural communities in Kamara Division.
• Saving and credit scheme. The main objective of this scheme
is to encourage and promote self reliance within the community group’s
through savings and credit facility that is community based and
managed. Such a scheme has been in operation in Kamara - Kamara
savings and credit scheme
Tenges Area-Based Programme
Tenges is approximately 85 km from Baraka Agricultural College.Unlike
Kamara Area Based Project which, is a high potential area receiving
between 1000mm- 1200mm of rain, Tenges on the other side has both
the highlands and the lowlands which receive 1000mm and 500mm of
rain respectively. Population is approximately 12,000 people.
Soil erosion is a great problem in the Division. Transport is complicated
because of the deep valleys that cut across the Tugen hills. In
the lowlands deep and wide dry river beds criss – cross the
land. Land is both communally and privately owned and acreage varies
from 1.5 acres in the highlands to 35 acres in the lowlands.
Most of the farmers depend on livestock for their livelihood. The
livestock mainly kept are goats, sheep and cattle. Beekeeping is
done in the law-lands using log hives. Crop farming is largely practiced
in the highlands. The main crops planted are maize, beans, millet
and sorghum. In the lowlands, drought tolerant crops do well but
are grown in small quantities.
Collaboration and networking is encouraged. To date, the farmers
have been organized into working groups to facilitate access of
services to farmers. The groups are engaged in tree nursery establishment,
improved dairy goat keeping, bee – keeping, groundnut growing,
and merry go rounds. Six youth groups have been formed that are
engaged in income generating activities.
To bring services closer to the farmers, the project has opened
community outreach offices in the four locations of the division.
In all community projects, participatory approaches are used where
the communities are facilitated to identify issues that affect them,
prioritize them, plan, implement and execute them. This process
encourages community participation and individuals learn lessons
that can replicated elsewhere.
It is hoped that during the five years of engagement with Tenges
Division, meaningful community development will be achieved.
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