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“The produce from my farm alone for example is too little that it cannot support the quantity required by the export agents. “There is a special reason why smallholder horticultural farmers like me have to work within a group, especially if the target is the export market,” he said. The father of three learnt the technique of high value farming in extreme conditions two years ago, when he joined a group that has since then vowed to drive hunger and food-aid out of the entire Ukambani region. “On my plot, I grow maize purely for domestic consumption, and horticultural crops such as soy beans, French beans, bullet pepper, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes among many others for both domestic and the export market,” said Mwangangi.

But through a church-led self help group known Christian Impact Mission, farmers have discovered means of survival – combining indigenous knowledge with emerging technologies to grow high value horticultural crops for domestic and the export market.

The entire region also known as Ukambani is dry.

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.Īfter years of dependence of food aid in the semi-arid Eastern Kenya, Stephen Mwangani from Kinyatta village in Yatta district has discovered how to keep his family food secure by using just one acre piece of land despite the droughts.

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