CARE helps farming communities in Garissa to build resiliency against drought
By Niki Clark, Dadaab Emergency Media Officer
The drive to the Galbet Farm in Garissa, Kenya, looks strikingly similar to the land around Dadaab, site of the world’s largest complex of refugee camps. A bit more growth, perhaps, but it, like Dadaab, is dry and barren. The bush remains brown and leafless after months upon months without rain. It seems like an unlikely environment for a farm, one that will thrive, anyway.
But thrive is exactly what the farmers at Galbet Farm are doing. While the drought is killing the livestock—and livelihoods—of the neighboring regions, this one small patch of land in Garissa is literally an oasis in the desert. It’s not just through happenstance. The people of Garissa knew a drought was coming. So with CARE’s help, they prepared.
For the past two and a half years, CARE’s Arid and Marginal Lands Recovery Project Consortium (ARC) has worked to promote drought resilience in the Garissa, Moyale, Wajir and Mandera districts. The three-year project targets more than 85,000 people, mostly pastoralists or former pastoralists who have settled to farm, as well as community health and animal health workers. ARC provides critical help to Garissa and the surrounding North Eastern Province, more than 50 percent of which is affected by drought, impacting some 2.4 million people. In a region where 80 percent of the population is dependent on livestock, the death of animals is devastating. CARE’s objective in launching the project, in the aftermath of the 2008-09 drought, was to help vulnerable rural people gain sustained access to food and become more resilient in the face of future crises.
Maka Kassim is one of those people. As a pastoralist, she and her family followed their livestock wherever pastureland and water could be found. After a severe drought five years ago, her herd died and she was left with nothing. “I decided I needed to plan so I could provide for my family,” she says. “So that we could get our daily bread.”
Today Maka is flourishing. CARE taught her how to farm and diversify her enterprises to protect against future droughts. As part of the Galbet Farm cooperative, she and the other farmers grow fodder grass, bananas, tomatoes, and mangos. In addition to providing enough food for her family, including her six children, the farm has been so successful that she is able to supplement her income by selling the extra produce at the market in Garissa.
One reason the produce at Galbet Farm grows so abundantly is the training provided by CARE’s community outreach. Another is improved water canals installed by CARE for effective distribution of water. Previously, farmers had to collect water from the Tana River, a time-consuming and dangerous task considering the river’s high population of crocodiles. The old canal, cut through loose soil, experienced frequent breakages and high seepage, resulting in a large loss of water. Now an abundant supply of water comes to the community, irrigating their land and providing fresh drinking water through tap stands. A generator-powered water pump allows farmers to turn the system on and off with a simple pull, allowing easy water management and reducing wastage and labor demands.
Galbet Farm is just one project within the Arid and Marginal Lands Recovery Project Consortium. CARE is teaching participants beekeeping, fodder production and milk marketing. In order to ensure the health of their livestock, CARE provides technical training on basic animal health. This allows agro-pastoralists to diagnose and treat basic diseases that previously would have resulted in death of their livestock. To date, CARE has facilitated trainings and exposure visits for 255 animal health workers and agro-vets – traders who supply affordable veterinary medicines and information. In addition, CARE has facilitated access to sustainable veterinary drugs and equipment supply chains which has increased access to quality drugs.
CARE has also facilitated a relationship between First Community Bank and the Kenya Meat Commission, which provides a fund for agro-pastoralists, allowing them to purchase more livestock at a time. Because of this initiative, farmers are able to purchase weakened cattle from the northeastern districts, bring them back to the farm to fatten them up and then sell them for a profit, further adding to their resilience in case of drought.
“We want to serve as role models,” Maka says. “Because of CARE’s assistance, I am able to feed my family. I am able to educate my children. I am able to plan for my future.”