Kitui, Makueni farmers receive Sh4.5m boost for conservation

Eighteen environmental enthusiasts have received equipment worth Sh4.5 million to leverage conservation efforts and raise income.

The farmers from Kitui and Makueni counties received the boost after presenting business plans showing how they would make money through conservation work.

The beneficiaries were identified through a partnership between NGOs Kitui Caritas, Welthungerhilfe and Reconcile, in an initiative dubbed Greenpark project to mitigate climate change. 

Greenpark project coordinator David Matuku said the beneficiaries were selected after rigorous vetting of 669 applicants who presented their business plans.

Beneficiaries converged at the Kitui Pastoral Centre on Friday where they were issued with equipment that included solar panels, water tanks, solar water pumps and watering cans.

Other implements given to the farmers were irrigation lines, submersible pumps, shovels, shade nets and product value addition oils.

Fr Edward Mulwa, the executive secretary to Catholic Bishop Joseph Mwongela, conducted the blessing ceremony.  

Reconcile project manager, Beatrice Mutua, urged the beneficiaries of 'the Greening for job' initiative to make the most of the support to improve their incomes through conservation activities.

“We want you to graduate to trainers of trainers and model farmers among your communities as champions in fighting climate change.

"Climate change is here with us and we must work hard to mitigate the effects,” she said.

A renown environmentalist from Makueni, Kyee Mbatha popularly known as Captain Green, was one of the beneficiaries.

Mbatha said the equipment was a shot in the arm for his conservation work.

“I promise that in the next five months, I will be a reliable producer of tree seedlings. I will sell my seedlings at a reasonable price to enable many people to buy in order to support conservation because I love it,” he pledged.

Planet Earth was warming at an alarming rate, Captain Green said, and there was consensus the world over to keep the rate at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Excess warmth would be disastrous to the human race.

“If the warming rises further, many babies will be born disabled or many mothers will have serious complications while giving birth,” he warned.

Another beneficiary, Eunice Kavata, said the equipment received would go a long way in uplifting her environmental conservation work.

“My business is growing trees. I plant and take care of trees to maturity. I have been doing that for the last 10 years. The equipment I have received are a big boost to my endeavour,” the 27-year-old from Kitui South sub-county  said.