When Ruth Njoki dived into sustainable agriculture in 2018, she had no guarantee that her move will pay off one day.
Njoki, a single mother from Nyandarua county was producing food enough to feed her family of four.
The trajectory would however change for good after she was introduced to sustainable farming practices that had been introduced in Narok, Nakuru and Nyandarua counties.
Under the project, 146 smallholder farmers underwent rigorous training to sustainably grow vegetables.
They were trained to efficiently grow their crops with less impact on the environment, building their resilience to climate change while also reducing land degradation.
Today, Njoki is smiling all the way to the bank.
“Sustainable agriculture has helped me to settle school fees, build my house, and buy a motorcycle for my son and two cows. I’m now planning to buy a plot,” she said.
Njoki uses her quarter of an acre farm to sustainably produce food.
These practice adopts soil and water conservation, use of manure, integrated pest management control, using natural pesticides where possible, and using pre-harvest intervals.
Before the training, Njoki was among farmers experiencing up to 50 per cent losses due to post-harvest for lack of markets.
In July this year, Njoki and other farmers were overjoyed after opening a greens shop Naivasha.
The Vasha Greens shop is a fresh vegetable shop owned by smallholder horticultural farmers that include Njoki.
The grocery sources fresh farm produce from farmers who grow the crops sustainably to ensure less harm to the environment and are in strict compliance with food safety standards.
Some of the farm produce in the shop include carrots, cabbages, kales, sukuma wiki, tomatoes, potatoes among others.
Njoki is now among many other farmers supplying her potatoes among other foods.
Customers who shop in the grocery are guaranteed healthy and safe vegetables whose sources can be traced.
The shop is located in Kayole about three kilometres from Naivasha town.
The farmers have also made another milestone after they were awarded KS1758 certification, a Ministry of Agriculture standard of quality for food safety.
Kenya Standard 1758:2016 (KS 1758) is a code of practice for the horticulture industry in Kenya which provides guidelines for safe and sustainable production and supply of fruits and vegetables for domestic and export markets.
This recognition makes them the first group of farmers in Kenya to receive the KS1758 certification.
This means that the farmers are able to sell their products overseas.
All these strides were made possible through a project known as Green horticulture at Lake Naivasha.
The project was a four-year project (2018-21) funded by the European Union under Switch Africa Green Phase II and supported by World Wide Fund For Nature-Kenya (WWF-Kenya).
The aim of the project was to shift such farms towards sustainable consumption and production and at the same time contribute towards green jobs provision and income improvement.
The project was also aligned to make the horticultural sector in Kenya and beyond, contribute towards a shift to a green economy by a large uptake of sustainable consumption and production practices along the supply chain, providing green jobs and reducing poverty.
WWF-Kenya Rift Lakes Programme manager Dr William Ojwang' said unsustainable farming threatened Lake Naivasha basin.
As such, he said, there was a need to find a solution.
Dr Ojwang said the project has enabled farmers within the basin to enhance their lives while protecting nature.
He said Lake Naivasha is very important not only locally but also globally but faced a myriad of threats.
“The unsustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers threatened the provision of ecosystem services and undermined its resilience. The inappropriate land use practices and degradation of the catchment in particular the destruction of forests, was causing water stress, gradually manifesting itself in the river base flows and fluctuating the lake,” he said.
Dr Ojwang said the lake was also affected by pollution, encroachment of riparian areas and the impact of climate change.
Lake Naivasha is the largest freshwater lake and a wetland of international importance, declared a Ramsar site in 1995, and an important horticultural hub.
The lake forms part of Aberdares, one of the major water towers.
Lake Naivasha is an important bird area with over 400 species and was designated in 1995 as a wetland of international importance. It is also a hub of Kenya’s flower industry.
The lake is of utmost economic importance as it contributes to Kenya’s GDP.
Seventy per cent of Kenya’s cut flower export generates an estimated nine per cent of the total foreign exchange revenue, contributing to almost 1.3 per cent of the country's GDP and 20 per cent of vegetable exports.
WWF-Kenya Western Aberdares-Naivasha Sub-Landscape Programme Coordinator Caroline Njiru said the milestone presents an opportunity for everybody; farmers, hoteliers and consumers.
She said post-harvest losses have since reduced.
Njiru said the project needs to be scaled up by the devolved units as it offers insightful lessons.
During the five-year cycle of the programme, farmers were trained on matters financial such as how to keep records and better negotiate for their fresh produce.
“I now know how to negotiate for better returns having been trained and I can also manage the seasonality of production to enable me to supply farm produce as the market demands,” Njoki says.
Equally, farmers have been trained on how to access finance to boost their production capacity.
Initially, the lack of a reliable market for fresh produce had subjected the smallholder farmers to over-exploitation by middlemen who offer them low pay for their produce.
As part of the project, counties are expected to embrace the new green procurement guidelines being developed and domesticate a green economy strategy and implementation plan.
Youth unemployment has also been tackled through the project.
In fact, agriculture is now one of the promising sources of employment for young people.
Gabriel Mwangi is an example.
Mwangi graduated with a Bachelor of Information Science, having specialised in records and archives management in 2013.
His aim, like that of most students, was a coveted white-collar job behind a desk.
“After my studies, I knocked on doors from one company to the other, expecting gainful employment. Several promises never materialised.
"I became frustrated after tarmacking for over a year, Mwangi, 28, told the Star.
As he was about to give up, opportunity knocked.
Mwangi got enrolled in sustainable farming and is currently planting tomatoes in a greenhouse.
He, just like Njoki, is among those who have embraced sustainable farming.
On December 8, curtains were officially brought down on the project.
Framers under the project however said they will continue producing sustainably on their own.
-Edited by SKanyara