• by Isaiah Esipisu (kiambani, kenya)
• Wednesday, March 23, 2011
• Inter Press Service

John Kyalo Mulwa couldn't support his family from his six hectare farm, so he quit farming to open a bar. But he turned the land - and decision-making on it - over to his wife. Turns out she's a better farmer than he ever was.

Fidelis Mbithe rises at 6 a.m. every day to pick kale leaves to feed her chickens. Sometimes she supplements the sukuma wiki, as kale is known locally, with crushed maize and pigeon peas for her 120 indigenous birds, since they cannot survive on greens alone.

'This is a drought-stricken area. That is why we must consider using indigenous knowledge to sustain any kind of farming,' says the 30-year-old farmer. She shuns uniformly heavier, faster-maturing exotic breeds to raise hardier, motley indigenous varieties - like many others raising poultry in Kenya, she has found a niche market for these free-ranging birds, consumers claiming they are tastier than exotic broilers.

Mbithe's chickens are the foundation of the success she's enjoyed since taking over managing her family's six hectares of land in the tiny eastern Kenyan village of Kiambani. In 2007, she began with five birds, and carefully nurtured them to reach their present number.

She ploughed the profits from the poultry project into dry land farming. 'I grow several types of vegetables including amaranth, cowpeas, kales, tomatoes, legumes such as pigeon peas and many others. I also grow maize and millet - basically for domestic use and feeds for my chicken. I sell the remaining produce to the local market.'

Mutual aid

'When I found out that my stock was growing steadily, I decided to join a women’s self-help group known as the Kaasya Production Group — a part of the Mbiuni Farmers Association,' said Mbithe. The association is composed of 16 women-driven self-help groups, with a total membership of 750 small-scale farmers from semi-arid Ukambani region of eastern Kenya. The group collaborates with a non-governmental organisation known as the Inades-Formation - a pan-African Non Governmental Organisation that encourages groups to save collectively to support individual members with loans. Mbithe is yet to take her first loan. 'I have my shares accumulating and very soon I might go for a loan in order to expand my project,' she said.

Mbithe’s example supports research findings published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation this month, which suggest that if women had access to same resources as men, their farm yields could rise 20 to 30 percent.

'Mbithe is one of the women who have risen from a state of poverty to become bread winners for their immediate and extended families through small-scale farming,' said Jane Biashara, a community development expert who has worked with more than 60 groups of small-scale women farmers in Kenya.

According to Biashara, the best way to empower poor women is by mobilising them into groups, where they can raise funds and borrow from their own pooled savings. 'From my experience, I have learned that poor women are more comfortable borrowing from kitties they own, than getting loans from other organisations. The interest accrued goes back to the same kitty thus avoiding losses,' she said.

She points out the example of the Mbiuni Farmers Association to which Mbithe belongs. The group has accumulated over 70,000 dollars in capital over five years simply by members buying shares in the association at a cost of 500 shillings ($6.25) per share.

According to Judith Musau Mwikali, Mbiuni's treasurer, members are allowed to borrow money from the association’s account, which they repay later with interest. 'The interest therefore becomes a dividend to benefit all group members.'

Not having formal title to land is a common obstacle for women seeking credit; the association solves this by requiring a borrower to get three guarantors, also members of the self-help group she is part of. The amount members may borrow is also limited by the number of shares she has purchased in the association.

'We use members as guarantee simply because in most cases women do not own properties which they can attach as a security to secure a loan. This means that if one is unable to service the loan, then we go for shares of the guarantors,' said Musau.

Mbithe's farm points to an essentially untapped resource at the heart of African agriculture: empowered women.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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