The Rotary club of Kutus in Kirinyaga has embarked on planting a total of 100 Hass avocado seedlings in every primary school in the county.
The county has over 300 primary schools.
The club's interim president, Samuel Mwangi, said the trees will be used as a cash crop to earn the schools a supplementary income.
“This is a project that will be rolled out in all schools in Kirinyaga county that have planting space. We want the learners and their teachers to own the project so that when we are away, they could be nurturing these trees,” he explained.
Other than safeguarding the environment, the trees will have economic importance, he added.
The cost of planting the 100 trees will be at 50,000 per school, which has been contributed by Rotarians.
Mwangi said they have been in talks with schools to allow them to work with environmental clubs, and will also be forming ‘Rotaract’ clubs to take care of the initiated projects.
He spoke at Kiamiciri primary school in Kutus while in the company of other club members including Chomba Nyaga and Harry Mugo, during the marking of the World Environment Day Wednesday.
Director of projects, Jackson Njuki, said while the clubs will be engaged in other projects in future, currently the environment will be their focus.
“So this is actually a landmark day because it is the first project that we are doing within this region and intend to continue going forward and cover all the primary schools within Kirinyaga and beyond.”
Njuki said pupils will also have an opportunity to learn how to plant and nurture trees, under the guidance of a technical person.
Adding his voice, Nyaga said the trees currently have high economic value. In three years time, they will have matured and will be generating a good income for the school, he said.
The school’s deputy head teacher, Boniface Njoka, applauded the club for the gesture and pledged to take good care of the trees and ensure they grow to maturity.