About five years ago, an acre in Gitegi village in Central Kenya would sell for Kshs. 50,000 (USD 547.29). That same piece of land now sells for Kshs. 700,000 (USD 7,662.00). In addition, it was very hard to find a buyer for the land five years ago. Now, the land is not only on high demand, but also scarce. The present case is a result of what has widely come to be known as the onion revolution attributed to Farm Concern International’s (FCI) efforts under the Domestic Markets Regional Programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The village has also seen rural to rural migrations from Murang’a and Embu, about 85 and 74 kilometres away respectively.

Villagers from Gitegi who joined Commercial Villages joined hands with FCI in propagating this commercialization revolution. “FCI came and introduced the idea of Commercial Villages to us. We started by forming several groups, until we had more than ten groups that now make up Gitegi Commercial Village,” Bernard Maina, the CV chairman said.

One of the first things FCI taught the farmers was to change from the open pollinated varieties to hybrid seeds. Before FCI training, one acre would produce 1 tonne but now produces up to 10 tonnes.  The group’s target is to get 15 tonnes per acre. Hybrid onions have benefits such as uniform maturity, short maturity, well-sealed neck, extended shelf life, dark red colour, and high density.

To ensure effective governance in Gitegi Commercial Village formed committees such as savings, welfare, production and marketing. Each committee has a chairperson and a secretary. In addition to FCI’s trainings on the functions of each committee, the group relies on members’ past experience in order to place members in particular committees. For example, those who have dealt with markets are in the marketing committee. 

Members who have been saving advised the rest on the importance of saving and how to save. FCI linked the group to Taifa Sacco, educated them on the importance of saving for the future, and they now have separate accounts as well as a joint savings account. The group currently has saved Kshs 2,000,000 (USD 23,529). 

The group keenly scrutinizes those who would be interested in joining the group. The first thing is to establish if the person is from the local area, as well as the individual’s background. The chairman then shares discipline procedures and by-laws that govern the commercial village. If the person accepts, then they pay the registration fees and obtain membership. 

To ensure effective governance in Gitegi Commercial Village, FCI facilitated formation of committees such as savings, welfare, production and marketing. Each committee has a chairperson and a secretary. In addition to FCI’s trainings on the functions of each committee, the group relies on members’ past experience in order to place members in particular committees. For example, those who have dealt with markets are nominated to serve in the marketing committee. 

FCI trained members on financial literacy and members who had been saving advised the rest on the importance of saving. FCI linked the CV to Taifa Sacco who educated them on the importance of saving for the future, record keeping and they now have individual accounts as well as a joint savings account. The group currently has saved Kshs 2,000,000 (USD 23,529). 

During planting and harvesting time, the group uses a balloting system to come up with the order to support each other to plant, harvest and hire labour. When they need to buy seedlings and inputs, they put together the money and buy collectively, enabling them to get good prices. 

According to Mr. Gerald Watoro, Senior Programmes Manager-Markets and Trade, Mt. Kenya Hub, FCI has learned that once you unlock commercialization for farmers, the work is sustainable. 

“We have seen more seed companies bring hybrid seed to this area, which means planting and selling of hybrid onions will be sustainable in Gitegi village even after the Programme comes to an end,” he said. 

E-warehouse,  programme implemented by Farm Concern International (FCI) in Meru County in Kenya has improved the lives of smallholder farmers. The programme encourages farmers to store their produce after harvest and wait for the market prices to increase. Farmers have come to appreciate the fact that selling immediately after harvesting is often a loss to them as prices usually decline during harvesting season. 

The beneficiaries of the E-warehouse intervention have been trained on the importance of holding on to their commodities and taking collective action through Commercial Villages (CVs) as a means of overcoming the marketing challenges that have existed for years. Applying the multi-disciplinary approach to development, FCI has facilitated market linkages to farmers who have stored their produce for selling at a future time when prices were higher. 

All the key players within the value chain can now attest that business with farmers in the CVs is more efficient and promising than before. In addition, traders are able to amass volumes from the collective stores within a few hours thus saving on transport, time and other transactions cost while the financial intermediaries rests assured that money given to farmers would be paid in due time.  

The project continued to attract more farmers especially with the use of M-pesa which generated incredible benefits. As a result, the Village Knowledge Workers (VKWs) registered additional smallholder farmers. Currently, a total of 7,195 farmers have been registered to participate in grain commercialization under e-Warehouse project in Tigania East and West sub-counties. Out of the total number of farmers registered, 4,812 farmers have been accepted in Taro works - the newly introduced technology based system.

Awareness creation for any project plays a key role in sustaining generated project benefits. To achieve this, under E-warehouse project, FCI continued to sensitize communities and the relevant stakeholders about the project. A total of 84 awareness forums were conducted on 30 CVs and 333 Commercial Producer Groups. 

In addition, FCI has conducted a number of stakeholder forums with the Ministry of Agriculture, input suppliers, buyers, processors, local administrators, financial institutions among others.  As a result of these sensitization forums, the project has received great support from the community, private sector and the government agencies. 

FCI’s trainings to 30 CVs and 333 Commercial Producer Groups resulted to training 2,327 farmers on good agronomic practices for maize, beans, green grams, cowpeas, pigeon peas and dolichos lablab. 

The information was beneficial to farmers especially in the month of April/May planting season. Agronomic content was loaded in VKWs’ smart phones where 2,320 content searches were done by the VKWs and disseminated to farmers. The use of mobile telephony helped farmers access the best agronomic practices easily. 

As a result of this, majority of farmers participating in the e-Warehouse project have adopted utilization of quality seeds and fertilizer use which has improved their productivity. It is projected that through trainings on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), farmers will continue enjoying bumper harvest and maximum profits for the same.

Smallholder farmers under the Semi- Arid Region Commercialization Programme implemented by World Vision Kenya and Farm Concern International with support from World Vision Australia have realized sales worth Ksh 11, 326, 337 (USDs 133,251.0) from April 2013 to July 2014 with 1,199 farmers benefiting. Savings worth Ksh 2,439,680 (USDs 28,702.1) have also been realized by 62 savings schemes established and linked to financial institutions such as Vision Fund, Wamunyu Financial Services and Equity Bank Foundation.     

In Kalawa, cumulative sales worth Ksh 767, 696 (USD 9,031.70) were realized in July 2014 while in Mwala,

farmers made sales worth Ksh 445,447 (USDs 5,240.5). Farmers have been making sales from green grams, tomatoes and cowpeas in Kalawa and tomatoes, watermelons and onions in Mwala as a result of village buyer forums held and business partnerships.

One of the factors necessary for sustaining the economic impact of smallholder farmers and enhancing their livelihood resilience is savings. Smallholder farmers have saved Ksh 2,439,680 (USD 28,702.1) as a result of trainings on savings, financial literacy and record keeping.  A total of 602 farmers in Kalawa comprising of 106 men and 496 women have saved Ksh 1,273,300 (USD 14,980). The village savings and loan schemes are on-going and a total of 239 loans worth Ksh 601,300 (USD 7,074) were carried by farmers at an interest of 10%. Ksh 177,030 (USD 2,082) interest has accrued from the borrowed loans.  

In Mwala IPA, a total of Kshs 1,166,380 (USD 13,722) has been saved through 35 savings schemes with 355 loans worth Kshs 616,897 (USD 7,258) borrowed. This was as a result of capacity building on village savings and loans. In addition, Vision Fund and Equity Foundation were linked to three CVs and training done for loan management. As a result, Umatui CPG has acquired a business loan worthy   Ksh 220, 000 (USDs 2588.20) which will facilitate the smallholder farmers