Taita Taveta Green Point

The project by NASARU is being implemented in Lodokilani ward, sub County of Kajiado West in Kajiado County. It has key project deliverables as water harvesting; promotion of drought tolerant crops and irrigation of agriculture around dams; awareness creation and capacity building on climate change. The indigenous inhabitants of the project area are the Maasai. The Maasai are nomadic cattle herders, although some members of this community practice subsistence agriculture. Maasais consider cattle a sacred gift from their God ,Enkai. The animals are a sign of wealth in the community and are often used in payment of dowry.

Kajiado County is primarily semi-arid. The average annual temperature in the county is 18.9°C. The area receives about 500mm of rainfall annually, most of it falling in April. The month of August is usually extremely dry. The community depends on available water pans to get water for their domestic use. Most of these water pans are owned by individual households and a few are community owned. During extreme weather conditions, the local people are forced to migrate to areas where they can get water and pasture for their livestock.

NASARU women CBO has procured and distributed 2,500kgs of Amaranthus and another 2,500kgs of drought tolerant crops (sorghum) to the selected women groups.

 In addition, the representative women farmers have been trained on farming of drought tolerant crops. There were trainings on installation and maintenance of Drip irrigation micro-kits to the selected members. Installation of Drip irrigation micro-kits is underway and selection of construction sites has been done.

The biggest challenge of NASARU is integrating farming to the community as an alternative source of livelihood to a community who are nomadic pastoralists. Lack of sufficient water is also a challenge facing the project. Delay of the funds owing to the fact that the EE has been categorized as a high risk entity thus has even much closer monitoring and the funds can only be released quarterly. The NIE, KEFRI are assisting the EE on procurement procedures to ensure effective and efficient uptake of funds.