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Patrick Musyimi Mutiso is a member of the Nzaaya-Muisyo self help group, which has been working with Excellent Development Kenya since 2003. His work to improve soil and water use on his farm, with the advice and support of Excellent Development Field Staff, has meant that he has been able to harvest this year, when many have not.

To complement the community group’s work building sand dams to improve their access to water, Patrick has worked on his own farm planting drought resistant crops and trees to build up his food and income security and provide some assurance for the future.

He exemplifies the simple but stunning changes that can be achieved with hard work and appropriate agricultural techniques, together with improved access to water.

Excellent Development’s secondees from the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alvera and Jacob Stern went to visit Patrick recently to see how he is doing under the chronic drought conditions that are affecting his area of south-east Kenya.

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Driving through the dry brown fields on the way to Patrick’s farm, we see patches of green in some: they are the traditional crops of pigeon peas, cow peas, pearl millet, dolichos lab lab, sorghum and finger millet that can thrive even under extreme drought conditions. In stark contrast, all the maize we see is dried up and shriveled. Maize is a popular crop round here but it requires a lot of water. Sadly, many people planted only maize last season and have no harvest.

We arrive at Patrick’s farm and enter through an acre or so of tall trees which line the road and create a cool pathway into his compound. There is a very attractive well built home, along with farm buildings and six cement water tanks, all harvesting water from gutters and spouts from his house and outbuildings. Even the storage shed for maize stalks has a tin roof and gutters on it to collect rainwater.

Patrick uses water from one of the Nzaaya community group’s nearby sand dams to irrigate his farm. Even in the current severe drought, this sand dam contains plenty of water, hidden from the hot sun deep in the sand. The water is enabling around two acres of vegetables to be grown under irrigation: mostly onions, kale, and tomatoes. Patrick sells the produce in local markets at Mbooni and Kola. He tells us he never has trouble selling his produce: every time he goes to market he sells everything he takes. The demand is high, but he thinks the price could be better. We wonder if sale prices have gone up because of the relative shortage of food, but he tells us: “No, since people have very little money they simply will not buy if the price is higher.”

In addition to supporting communities to access water from sand dams, Excellent Development also encourages tree planting to boost soil and water conservation, and to create extra income-generating benefits. Patrick explains that he never planted trees before getting advice from Excellent Development field staff, and now he has about 7,000 of them. He has been planting about 1,000 a year since starting work with Excellent Development Kenya.

Patrick shows us his many fruit trees: 66 mangoes and 25 orange trees providing delicious and nutritious fruit. The majority of his trees are planted for timber and firewood: Eucalyptus, Grevillia robusta, Neem, Melia azedarach, Croton megalocarpus, and Terminalia brownii. He has sold some trees for cash, but is keeping most of them as a source of income in later years.

Excellent Development field staff also encouraged Patrick to go back to planting traditional drought-resistant crops, which he did. He tells us that this drought year in particular the information paid off. He harvested 100 kg of pearl millet and 6 kg of sorghum this season, when other people harvested nothing. When people saw his fields they asked many questions and now they also want to plant these crops.

In order to maximise the use of manure on the farm, Patrick practices zero-grazing. He has constructed a neat row of stalls for his 4 cows, 3 calves, 2 bulls, 5 goats and a donkey. They remain tied there for most of the day feeding on leucaena, napier grass, Rhodes grass, and maize stalks, all from his farm. Their manure is then easily collected and used where it is needed. Unlike many animals in the area, they do not look like they are suffering from the drought at all.
Patrick has definite plans for the future. He wants to expand his irrigation acreage, and is thinking about constructing a pipeline from the sand dam to his house. He also wants to plant many more trees, up to 10,000 in the next three years.

We asked Patrick why he was doing so well despite the ongoing drought, and what his advice was to other farmers:

“People need to learn to access water through water tanks at their homes, and building sand dams on their seasonal rivers. Farmers should build terraces to catch the water that does fall. Also, people need to use manure in the fields to retain more water. The trainings and exchanges that Excellent Development Kenya has run with us have really helped in learning these things. Farmers need to get to the place where they can make money, and they cannot do that until they have water and food for their families. Then they can start selling extra food and get money to start other businesses.”

He has summed up the whole approach of Excellent – starting from near subsistence level, lives can be improved by first focusing on soil and water conservation to enable food and water security, then building on that to generate income and security for the future.