While most regions in Kenya continue to reel from acute food shortage, four villages in the Western Region of Kenya have more than plenty to meet their nutritional needs. The once tsetse fly infested division is now a lead agriculture producer in the province.
The four villages in Bondo Districts; Bar Okwiri, Achudho, Magombe and Abida have adopted alternative crop farming to sustain food availability in the face of nationwide food insecurity. The farmers came together to form a Community Based Organization called BAMA; the acronyms drawn from the first letters of the four villages.
The group came up with an ingenious way of providing food to its 2000 members and Bondo district community at large all year around through an ingenious food bank project with financial assistance from ActionAid.
The project, which started in the year 2005 has become a fall back mechanism for many households in BAMA villages in times of food stress. The project was started to cushion the very poor and vulnerable in the four villages of BAMA especially people living with HIV and AIDS and orphans left behind as a result of the HIV and AIDS scourge.
Members from the group are given seedling and planting materials at the start of the planting season and they pay back with interest after they harvest. The interesting aspect of this trade is that there is no money exchange; it’s purely a barter trade off.
“Before joining the group, I was a housewife and depend wholly on the meager earnings of my husband. The money was not enough to cater for my big family and we went hungry many times,” said Jane Otieno, 45, a mother of six and a beneficiary of the project.
Through the food bank project and with extensive training on good farming methods by ActionAid, Jane was advanced 90 kilograms of maize a year ago by BAMA. She recently harvested 20 bags of 90 kilograms each from her one acre piece of land.
“I was surprised by the quantity of harvests I got this time. Previously, my small piece of land would not yield more than 3 bags of maize. I have paid back the 90kgs that was advanced to me as well as an interest of 10kgs to BAMA,” said an elated Jane.
The interest received from the farmers is used to support orphans left behind by parents who succumbed from HIV and AIDS. BAMA also wards off middle men traders by buying harvests produced by its membership and stores them in traditional silos which it sells back to the members during periods of food shortage at extremely low prices.
“For a long time, middle men would come to buy food crops from the region cheaply and sell back to the farmers at extremely high prices after a few months. BAMA decided to buy the crops and sell to farmers when needed at humane prices." Said Tobia Nyabola, one of the founders of the group.
“By buying the crops from the farmers, the group has ensured that produce from the area remains in the area hence making the region food secure all year round,” added Tobias.
BAMA has used this strategy to mobilize strategic food reserves to shield the most vulnerable of its members from perennial hunger.
BAMA CBO has partnered with a local University and conducted research on food and medicinal value of 42 indigenous vegetables. The results of this research have been simplified into a brochure and used to educate and influence peoples eating habit to go back to traditional foods that are equally if not more beneficial.
Most recently, the group was feted by the Greek president for its work on promoting food security in Nyanza.