A Youth Group's way of adapting to climate change!

Umoja Youth Development is a Self-Help group that has come together with a goat keeping project with an aim of income generation and poverty reduction....http://umojayouthdevelopmentorgaorganization.blogspot.com

Embrace indigenous food crops…..community told

The Ministry of Agriculture and its stakeholders had a national field day on September 14th 2011 which was attended by residents of Mutomo and Ikanga divisions of Mutomo District

Stakeholders who participated in the Field day included Arid Lands Information Network( ALIN ),Ministry of Agriculture,Ministry of Livestock production,National Bank of Kenya among others.

The field day, which was attended by among others the Provincial Director of Agriculture,Eastern Province Mr.Joseph Ngatho and the National Crops Officer Mr.Maina,attracted hundreds of community members who were eager to learn new agricultural ideas and technologies.

The theme of the field day was water harvesting,grow more food, land preparation and planting.

Different government departments,Non-Governmental Organizations,Community Based Organizations and Financial institutions had the the opportunity to showcase to the community members on the services and products they offer especially touching on the themes.

Speakers at the event stressed the importance of embracing indigenous food which can do well in the climatic conditions.Some of these crops named included sorghum,millet,green grams,cowpeas, sweet potatoes and cassava.

Residents were also encouraged to cultivate cotton as it not only does well in harsh climatic conditions but also can be a major income generating avenue now that the price of cotton has gone up.

Farmers were also encouraged to grow green grams and Gadam sorghum as they are drought escaping crops and have established market.

They were also implored to come up with production and marketing groups for ease of getting extension messages and to avoid exploitation by middlemen when marketing their products.

Farmers were also urged to prepare their farms early.

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Maarifa Centre user praises library services

Mutomo Maarifa Centre is an information hub that continues to attract large numbers of beneficiaries seeking the free information services offered at the Centre.Internet and library services constitute the highest sought after services.

Boniface Kasoli,a Public Health Officer at the Mutomo District Hospital is one of the frequent visitors who has been borrowing books from the Maarifa Centre.

Before,Mr.Kasoli used to search for information from the internet because there were no books which touched on his career.

However,the Maarifa Centre was stocked with new books from Book Aid International which included medical books and he started borrowing books because they had better references

“ Recently,I borrowed a health book on Promoting Health from the Maarifa Centre”,Says Kasoli adding that he was able to gain valuable information and he was able to facilitate a seminar from the information gained.

Mr.Kasoli browses through the books at the Maarifa Centre’s library section

“I got gained lots of new information which assisted me to facilitate from an informed level,” he says adding that he is grateful to ALIN for the information services they are giving to the community.