A veterinary officer in the Mwingi area of Eastern Kenya is training farmers in the arid area to mitigate against changes in weather through pasture preservation technology with over 60 farmers now comfortably taking care of their animals.
Dr Jim Katu who received a scholarship from Australia Awards Africa Fellowship in Agriculture Livestock Course in 2012 decided to return home after the scholarship to ease the difficult lives of the rural farmers in his village.
Their situation was being exacerbated by increasingly changing weather patterns.
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Dr. Jim Katu has brought a glimmer of hope for these farming communities. He undertook an Australia Awards Africa Fellowship in Agriculture Livestock Course in 2012. On completing the fellowship, he returned to his post as District Veterinary Officer in the Ministry of Livestock in Mwingi East District, where he set upon utilising his newfound knowledge to assist farmers in the arid and semi-arid areas.
“Climatic change is proving to be a major constraint to agriculture among the Mwingi communities. I have integrated knowledge and skills learned in pasture preservation from the course and successfully trained two community farmer groups of about 25 to 30 members each and six staff members as a trainer of trainers on improved pasture cultivation and fodder preservation,” says Dr. Katu.
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He further initiated an ongoing community project in perennial pasture establishments as a key drought mitigation strategy for the district which has an estimated total livestock population of about 70,000 cattle and 80,000 goats. Eighty percent of the population is composed of rural dwellers.
“The course proved effective not only in fine-tuning country-specific departmental community projects but also created the ideal setting for innovative platforms and professional networks. Such networks will be effective in developing applicable and sustainable mechanisms for small-scale farmers to adopt improved farming practices resilient to the impacts of climatic change across Africa,” Dr. Katu added.