Drought farming lessons join reading and writing at Kenyan schools

By Isaiah Esipisu

Purity Njigi attending to her mango tree at Kamunyagia school

MBEERE, Kenya (AlertNet) – At Kamunyagia Primary, year seven student Purity Njigi is learning something new alongside her usual lessons – how to produce enough food to eat when there isn’t enough rain.

As part of an effort to help area farmers – and their children – adapt to changing climate conditions, Njigi and other students at the school have formed a Junior Farmers Club, with each member allocated a small portion of land to grow crops and fruit trees.

“It is like a competition,” she says – and the results are clear.

Arab Spring Teaches Food Security

By Terna Gyuse and Isaiah Esipisu

Melinda Gates holding a packet of cassava flour

ARUSHA, Tanzania, (IPS) - African leaders should take note of the lessons learned from the Arab Spring and realise that ensuring good governance and food security will avoid crises on the continent, says Kofi Annan, chairman of the Africa Green Revolution Alliance.


The former United Nations Secretary General said that food shortage was one of the triggers of the protests in North African and Middle-Eastern countries that lead to the ousting of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in February that same year.

Moving Towards Food Security in Dry Land Areas

By Isaiah Esipisu



Jemina Nzuki preparing zai-pits



MWINGI, Kenya – In a tiny village known as Kakumini in the heart of Mwingi Sub-County, Jemima Nzuki is busy excavating zai-pits on her three acre plot in preparation for planting. The entire semi arid region is dry. Nobody surely knows when the elusive rains will come down. But Nzuki and other villagers have hopes that it will rain some day, and that is when they will plant.

The last time it rained in this area was seven months ago. That was when she harvested the food that sustains her family to date.

The food stock in her granary is evidence that the 30 year old mother of four has learnt tricks on how to co-exist with tough and ever shifting climatic conditions.