Three thousand households in the badly degraded and food scarce parts of Kitui Rural subcounty are set to benefit through land reclamation, crop improvement and positive livelihoods programme.
Through a 36-month programme run by Adra Kenya NGO, residents of Kanyangi and Yatta/Kwa Vonza wards will attain food security, reliable income and restore the desolate landscape.
The programme dubbed Nature Positive Food System for Climate Change Adaptation, is funded by the Canadian government’s Global Affairs department and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to the tune of Sh250 million.
The Adra programme team leader David Kitheka said on Wednesday that the programme interventions include landscape restoration, positive livelihoods and gender advocacy to empower women, youth and PWDs.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ semi-annual review of the programme at a Kitui hotel, Kitheka said landscape restoration encompasses conservation agriculture, farmer managed natural regeneration and agroforestry.
“We are using the landscape approach to restore degraded lands. Our vision is to see all the household, community and public land in our target areas restored to full productivity,” the Adra official said.
He said by the time the programme winds up in March 2026, the targeted areas will have experienced vegetation cover restoration of up to 50 per cent. He said degraded land with gullies will be reclaimed.
Kitheka said the field of livelihood involves regenerative agriculture and growing of drought tolerant crops like greengrams and cowpeas.
He said there was also the aspect of income diversification through local poultry rearing and bee-keeping and embracing village saving and loaning groups.
“We want to make sure that at the ends of the programme, the communities are able to feed their families through nature based solutions and climate resilient technologies to generate incomes,” he said.
Kitheka said the objective was to discourage negative coping strategies like charcoal burning, unsustainable sand harvesting, child labour and other unorthodox means to fend for their families.
“When farmers have managed their landscape, when the trees are growing, when water levels have shot up as a result of sand dams, people will be able to produce crops sustainably,” he said.
Kitheka said the programme was also into gender advocacy activities for women, youth and PWD empowerment. He said the objective was to create equity in both household and community leadership.
