Lake region farmers gearing up to tap on carbon credit

Peterson Onyango is a retired civil servant with a big vision of environmental conservation. At his farm in North Kanyamwa, in Homa Bay County, he engages in different forms of agricultural practices that help to protect the environment.

He applies simple and organic farm practices using farm yard manure that promotes land restoration. “I also practice agroforestry and sustainable land use. This is meant to safeguard the farm from exhaustion while restoring the environment,” Mr Onyango says.

The farmer is partnering with an organisation called Trees for the Future, an organisation that is focused on land restoration in developing communities around the world. The organisation promotes and supports different farm practices, mainly agroforestry and parma gardening in Nyanza.

At Mr Onyango’s farm, he has a woodlot with at least 5000 tree seedlings.
Mr Onyango recently signed a deal with Trees for the Future to be considered for a carbon credit project. “Having one section of the farm for agroforestry puts me as a candidate for carbon credit,” he says.

Carbon credits are permits that allow firms to produce a certain amount of carbon emissions. Organisations that run environmental conservation projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere or prevent carbon emissions can sell their credits to those that generate emissions.

One carbon credit represents a reduction, avoidance or removal of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or its carbon dioxide equivalent. President William Ruto banks on carbon credit as one of Kenya’s big exports and has gone ahead to introduce programmes like planting 15 billion trees in coming years. In 2023, he signed into law the Climate Change (Amendment) Bill 2023 which allows the country to set up a national carbon registry and appoint an authority to run it.  

At the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, President Ruto said the time was ripe for Kenya and Africa to start monetising its massive carbon sinks. Mr Onyango is not the only farmer who is looking forward to benefiting from tree planting and carbon credit.

Nyanza region has at least 18,000 farmers who are getting support from Plant Trees for the Future for the same initiative. All the farmers are engaged in the restoration of the environment on land measuring more than 16,000 hectares where they practice agroforestry as a way of reducing carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.

Trees for the Future Director of Field Programmes Mercy Karunditu says her organisation is implementing a project dubbed Lake Victoria Watershed Agroforestry Carbon where it engages farmers in the restoration of the environment through tree planting.

The farmers in the project are based in Kisumu, Homa Bay, Siaya and Migori counties. When they were introduced to the programme, each farmer was tasked with the responsibility of planning at least 6000 tree seedlings at the beginning.

This project involves training and implementing sustainable agroforestry practices with farmers to transform mono-cropped land into nature-based carbon sinks with above and below-ground biomass and improved soils.

Some experts oppose carbon credits and offsets, arguing that they can promote greenwashing by allowing companies to appear environmentally responsible without making meaningful changes to reduce emissions.

“The project aims to improve nutrition, increase income and resilience, develop the sustainable growing capability of the land, and enhance biodiversity in the region, ” Ms Karunditu. Mr Aguko Juma, a representative of the Local Development Forum encouraged farmers to plant fruit trees. adding that they are a good source of nutritional benefits.
[email protected]