The Organic Agriculture Centre of Kenya (OACK) saw that by providing the right skills, information and support, they could help small-scale farmers move away from subsistence farming and into thriving livelihoods that improve their local communities and the landscapes they live in.

Kangari village in Murang’a county, Kenya, has practiced mono-cropping for many years. Nearly 80% of the land and the time spent farming focuses on tea crops, which are planted purely for income but hold little additional value as sustenance to local farmers and their families. Understandably, many smallholder farmers have turned to non-sustainable practices with the hope of increasing the yield and therefore their profit. They invest in chemical fertilisers and pesticides that claim to boost growth, and they focus solely on cash crops, neglecting the produce that could also feed their families. In reality, what started as a quick fix has ended in a long-term decrease in yields. Agrochemical use causes environmental degradation and soil erosion. What’s more, unforeseen circumstances such as disease or adverse weather can ruin a harvest causing devastation to a farm that yields only a single crop. Worse still, Murang’a farmers are often knowingly targeted by banks who offer them high-interest loans taken out against prospective annual incomes. When crops fail to meet anticipated levels of production, farmers are unable to repay these loans and are forced into debt. Knowing that agroecology and organic farming practices are vital to the solution, OACK works with smallholder farmers in Murang’a. Since 2006, they have equipped farmers with agroecological practices that improve long-term soil fertility, tackle food insecurity and open up multiple sources of income to smallholder farmers.