Diversified Agriculture Creates More Livelihood Opportunities for Rural Farmers

One of the goals of Nuru Kenya is to help rural farmers to improve food security and income opportunities. This year it looks forward to impacting the lives of nearly 2,000 farmers and their families this year through 14 local farmer organizations (cooperatives) this year. Ikerege Farmers’ Cooperative Society is one of those 14 cooperatives. It has 118 active farmer members (79 men and 39 women), and boasted a 100% repayment on its agricultural input loans last year.

Lucy Mogesi Motabutwa is one of those cooperative members. She and her husband have 10 children, and farming is one of their primary means of nutrition and livelihood improvement. Before Nuru, their household struggled to produce yields to address hunger for their large family. Last year, received training and a loan of inputs from her Nuru-established farmer organization (cooperative) for her one-acre farm.

As a result of applying her training, last summer she harvested 22 bags of maize (~4,400 lbs). She was able to fully feed her household and converted the surplus produce into cash, which she used to pay school fees for her children, to address health emergencies in her family, and to buy farming implements such as jembes (ploughing hoes).

Like many Nuru farmers she is an industrious entrepreneur, and she has worked to diversify her income through having a dairy cow, starting a banana farm, and selling eggs produced by her ten chickens. As the 2018 planting season begins, she is hopeful to begin building a more secure home for her family, and she looks forward to continuing to work toward a healthier and more resilient home in the years to come together with her other cooperative members.

Thanks to the help and support of many donors and investors, Nuru Kenya will be working together with Lucy and her community to help them to continue charting a path out of extreme poverty for good.