Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum KESSFF
Type of Organization: Farmers' organization
Areas of work: Practices & Techniques, Agricultural and rural legislation, Agricultural Training Videos, Agroecology
Region: Africa
Country: Kenya
Description:
We are a grassroots village-based membership network of Small-Scale Farmers SSFs operating in 75 %of the Republic of Kenya and part of a similar larger regional network for East Central and South African Countries ESAFF. Born out of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development WSSD02 in Johannesburg, South Africa, we bring together SSFs through empowering them with capacities to articulate issues affecting them namely domestic and global policies domestic and international market access availability of SSFs friendly credit and Climate Change (CC) effects mitigation and adaptation measures through Agroecological techniques ie. Organic Farming Agroforestry and Permaculture ie. Permanent. Also, we have actively participated in African Growth and Opportunities Act AGOA trade between Africa and USA, Economic Partnership Agreements EPAs trade between Africa and EU, Tokyo International Conference on African Development TICAD, World Trade Organisation WTO, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD, African Union AU DELIBERATIONS like AfCTA, ECOWAS, SADEC, EAC INTERATIION PROCESS, THE COMESA, The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme CAADP which is an African Heads of States Malabo Committement for the 10% increased Annual Budgetary Allocation to Agriculture Sector which to date remains a pipe dream. We also have been the Facilitator For East African Civil Society Mechanism CSM and attending the UN World Committee on Food Security CFS where we formulate global policies for Food Security Systems FSS and domesticate the Voluntary Guidelines of Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land Forests and Fisheries VGGT in context of National Food Security Systems NFSS, then led by the Kenya Government Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries. Together, with Private Sector Organisations PSOs and Civil Society Organisation CSOs, we have successfully formed the Kenya National Committee of Family Farming KNCFF and identified several women champions whom we are training to domesticate the issues widely. Also, following the COVID-19 pandemic lock downs effects which affected Urban areas more than the others, hence the introduction of the Urban Farming UF project which was launched in Nairobi Kenya in 2021 and in the same line we have signed a 10 years Memorandum of Understanding MOU with Konza City Technopolis Authority KoTDA, the latest African Smart City Savanna for greening the city, but with special focus on Food Security Systems FSS development. With all of these initiatives therefore for sustainability we have embarked on Runoff Rain Water Harvesting Projects RWHP at the grassroots village levels especially in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands ASALs whose water harvested is being used for both agricultural and domestic purposes. This has had resulted to reducing the number of hours women used to walk long distances to fetch water, the frequency of school dropouts by girls during menstrual periods, increased food production creating Agribusinesses Jobs and employment especially for the youth and increased tree cover creating carbon sinks for absorbing Carbon Dioxide CO2 and our contribution to reducing Green House Gas Emmisions GHGs.
We are a grassroots village-based membership network of Small-Scale Farmers SSFs operating in 75 %of the Republic of Kenya and part of a similar larger regional network for East Central and South African Countries ESAFF. Born out of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development WSSD02 in Johannesburg, South Africa, we bring together SSFs through empowering them with capacities to articulate issues affecting them namely domestic and global policies domestic and international market access availability of SSFs friendly credit and Climate Change (CC) effects mitigation and adaptation measures through Agroecological techniques ie. Organic Farming Agroforestry and Permaculture ie. Permanent. Also, we have actively participated in African Growth and Opportunities Act AGOA trade between Africa and USA, Economic Partnership Agreements EPAs trade between Africa and EU, Tokyo International Conference on African Development TICAD, World Trade Organisation WTO, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD, African Union AU DELIBERATIONS like AfCTA, ECOWAS, SADEC, EAC INTERATIION PROCESS, THE COMESA, The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme CAADP which is an African Heads of States Malabo Committement for the 10% increased Annual Budgetary Allocation to Agriculture Sector which to date remains a pipe dream. We also have been the Facilitator For East African Civil Society Mechanism CSM and attending the UN World Committee on Food Security CFS where we formulate global policies for Food Security Systems FSS and domesticate the Voluntary Guidelines of Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land Forests and Fisheries VGGT in context of National Food Security Systems NFSS, then led by the Kenya Government Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries. Together, with Private Sector Organisations PSOs and Civil Society Organisation CSOs, we have successfully formed the Kenya National Committee of Family Farming KNCFF and identified several women champions whom we are training to domesticate the issues widely. Also, following the COVID-19 pandemic lock downs effects which affected Urban areas more than the others, hence the introduction of the Urban Farming UF project which was launched in Nairobi Kenya in 2021 and in the same line we have signed a 10 years Memorandum of Understanding MOU with Konza City Technopolis Authority KoTDA, the latest African Smart City Savanna for greening the city, but with special focus on Food Security Systems FSS development. With all of these initiatives therefore for sustainability we have embarked on Runoff Rain Water Harvesting Projects RWHP at the grassroots village levels especially in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands ASALs whose water harvested is being used for both agricultural and domestic purposes. This has had resulted to reducing the number of hours women used to walk long distances to fetch water, the frequency of school dropouts by girls during menstrual periods, increased food production creating Agribusinesses Jobs and employment especially for the youth and increased tree cover creating carbon sinks for absorbing Carbon Dioxide CO2 and our contribution to reducing Green House Gas Emmisions GHGs.