Jamaika village in Githunguri, Kiambu county, was recently a beehive of activity as smallholder farmers joined other stakeholders in marking the Green Action Week (GAW), a global campaign which aims at increasing producers’ and consumers’ awareness on the impacts of their feeding habits and to promote sustainable consumption.
The GAW 2022 theme, ‘Sharing communities’, aimed at promoting the sharing of indigenous foods and production of the same through sharing indigenous technical knowledge.
Hundreds of small-scale farmers and organised groups within Githunguri ward participated in an exhibition where they displayed their traditional foods and different agro-ecological practices that they use to grow the food organically.
It was also an opportunity to go back to cultural roots as participants tasted cultural foods, some of which are at risk of extinction if relevant stakeholders fail to take action.
The event was jointly organised by Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (Pelum) Kenya and Community Sustainable Development Empowerment Programme (Cosdep) and was held on October 18.
Every year, Pelum Kenya collaborates with its members to organise the GAW to promote sustainable agriculture through such engagements.
At the start of it, farmers and guests held a procession, singing traditional songs and displaying placards with messages on promoting indigenous foods. The songs and placards also created awareness on, among other things, the increasing cases of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, which they mainly attributed to the use of genetically modified foods and use of chemical fertilisers.
Farmers from Githunguri in Kiambu display some indigenous foods during an event to mark Green Action Week.
Photo credit: Rachel Kibui | Nation Media Group
Pelum Kenya Programmes Officer Edward Muiruri attributed low farm production to the use of synthetic fertilisers and urged farmers to, instead, use organic manure to enhance soil fertility. Chemical fertilisers, he noted, kill nutrients in the soil, resulting in dismal production.
“People need to abandon over-processed foods and embrace traditional ones as they are rich in nutrition and, therefore, enhance human health,” said Mr Muiruri
To grow indigenous foods, Mr Mururi called for seed sharing among farmers as a way of ensuring diversity. Indigenous seeds have especially been recommended amid climate change, as they are more resilient to shocks such as extreme weather conditions.
In line with the event’s theme, Cosdep Director Stanley Karanja encouraged farmers to share knowledge and best practices among themselves, adding that they should share seeds too.
“It is even culturally wrong to deny a fellow farmer seeds and we should therefore captivate the spirit of sharing,” said Mr Karanja.
Githunguri ward MCA Joseph Muhinja, who was the chief guest at the event, pledged to support an agro-ecological Bill touching on organic farming at the Kiambu County Assembly. He said he would also request for funding to boost organic farming.
“I will ensure that I present bills that promote organic farming at the assembly and also request for funding to boost organic farming so that all our farmers can embrace it,” said Mr Muhinja.
“Going back to our traditional organic food will reduce almost all the diseases attributed to GMOs. We must treat the source of diseases by going organic and doing away with harmful industrial chemicals,” he added.
He urged farmers to individually make efforts to grow organic food crops, saying this would turn the area to a hub for such produce, which has a lucrative market locally and internationally.
The speakers’ sentiments come at a time when the government has lifted a ban on GMO foods and crops, an action geared towards solving the country’s food shortage problem.
