Grants and Contributions:
The ultimate outcome of this four-year project is improved food and nutrition security of farm families (women, girls, boys and men) in the Buuri Dairy milk collection area and adjacent rural communities in Meru County, Kenya. It responds to food security challenges, population growth and climate change shocks affecting the lives of Kenya’s rural population, especially women farmers. The project will address these challenges by applying proven approaches to increasing agricultural productivity, income, nutritional knowledge and skills among the target population. Women are the focus of the project as they usually are the primary farmers in rural Kenya, and they are eager to learn and apply knowledge and skills that will help improve the lives of their families. Farmers Helping Farmers (FHF) proposes to work with 400 farming women who are members of ten women’s groups and/or three dairy groups, and with five schools in the project region. This will directly benefit the women’s families (1600), and an additional 1500 students in the schools, and will indirectly benefit over 50,000 community members in the project area.
The project aims to pursue its ultimate outcome by: a) increasing farm women’s production of and income from nutrient-dense vegetables, dairy milk, and eggs, through production training and through demonstration of technologies for more sustainable use of water, soils and energy; and b) improving dietary diversity through nutrition training of farm women, and school feeding programs designed to demonstrate, deliver, and promote more nutrient-rich diets to students and their parents. Training will be provided by Canadian volunteer members of FHF, many of whom are students at the University of PEI, and by Kenyan project staff and government agricultural extension personnel. All participating farm women will be provided with one or more of the proposed agricultural technologies to allow implementation of at least some of the training recommendations, for sustainability and demonstration reasons.
The main purpose on the International Development Assistance Program is to reduce poverty for those living in countries where Global Affairs Canada engages in international development.