00:00 [ Background noise ]
00:15 >> My name is Jim O'Uto.
00:17 I work with Practical Action.
00:19 My role at Practical Action is Youth and Livelihoods Advisor.
00:23 We're supporting projects in Kisumu
00:26 and Homabe called Transforming Rural Economies
00:30 and Youth Livelihoods.
00:31 Basically, it's about encouraging or trying
00:37 to make young people come into agriculture and see it as a way
00:40 of business and see it as something that they can,
00:44 you know, leverage on for their livelihoods,
00:47 for employment, and also for income.
00:50 We're targeting 8,000 young people both from Kisumu
00:55 and Homabe County, and it's a project that started in 2019,
01:00 just coming to an end very soon in January 2024.
01:05 And so far, we've been able to reach upwards
01:09 of 8,000 young people.
01:12 So the effort that we're taking is, of course,
01:17 we are focusing on young people between the ages
01:19 of 22 and 35 years.
01:21 And we're also using participatory market systems
01:25 methodology, and we're using agroecology
01:28 or regenerative agriculture approaches
01:31 in these interventions.
01:32 So, so far, we've been able to implement a few models
01:39 that have seemed to be working really well.
01:41 One of them, which is called the mentorship model,
01:46 and this is where young people are trained as mentors,
01:50 and at the same time, they're now able to reach
01:54 out to other young people so that the gospel spreads.
01:59 We've also had lead farmers who are actually champions
02:06 in the regenerative agriculture space, who set
02:09 up learning centers or farmer field schools
02:12 where other young farmers or other farmers
02:15 from within the communities can come and learn from them
02:18 on the different regenerative practices
02:21 and things of the sort.
02:23 So we're also engaging the private sector
02:26 in the market systems development approach
02:29 where now marginalized young people
02:34 from the different polytrains of tomatoes, groundnuts,
02:38 and even African leafy vegetables and poultry can now be able
02:44 to be linked with the market players
02:47 for sustainability purposes and for profitability purposes
02:51 of their businesses.
02:53 So we've also been able to lead
02:58 in making young people access finance, which is one
03:02 of the things that make it very hard for them
03:04 to engage in agriculture.
03:05 And we've developed models called youth savings
03:10 and learning models within the communities where upwards
03:14 of 7,000 young people have joined these YSLs and have been able
03:18 to raise over 20 million yen in terms of savings and amounts
03:23 that are going in the amounts
03:25 that are rotating within the groups.
03:28 Yeah, so far, after these five years,
03:31 you can see we've seen a lot
03:34 of transformation within the communities.
03:36 We've seen a lot of young people changing their attitude
03:39 towards agriculture and embracing agriculture
03:41 and taking it as a full-time job.
03:43 We've also seen a lot of cottage industry come
03:47 out of these small enterprises like peanut butter production.
03:53 We've seen ketchup and tomato sauce production.
03:56 We've seen dried African leafy vegetables
04:00 that are being exported.
04:01 All that initially seemed impossible
04:05 for these young people, but now there are industries
04:08 that are employing other more young people within the same.
04:12 We've seen increased incomes by about 30% from the baseline,
04:19 and many youths are now embracing agriculture and taking it
04:26 up as a means of their livelihoods.
04:28 >> I'm Celes Omonde.
04:31 I'm coming from Sene, Sabkanti.
04:33 I'll be in a trail project.
04:37 Now is five years, and I've really gained a lot.
04:42 When I joined practical action, I didn't --
04:45 of course, I had passion in farming,
04:47 in agriculture activities, but I didn't have much knowledge,
04:52 which practical action has really impacted me.
04:54 Basically, I'm majorly on poultry value chain,
05:01 but again, through poultry value chain,
05:04 I'm doing other value chains,
05:06 like I'm doing horticulture.
05:08 I'm also doing -- I'm also doing rearing of animals.
05:17 And again, the trainings, we also train other aspects,
05:22 like agroecology technology, whereby we rear ones
05:27 for supplementation.
05:29 We also do [inaudible] all those value chains make us --
05:33 reduce the cost of production,
05:38 but maximizes the profit level.
05:40 In terms of changes to the society, majority,
05:45 most of the youths are focused, and they are now practicing a lot
05:50 in terms of agriculture, but what I would wish to advise --
05:55 most youths want to get into agriculture,
05:59 but the challenge is water resource.
06:03 So if at all -- if this project would have continued,
06:07 at least accessibility of water would have been made so easily.
06:12 At least if -- like if support of doing a bovine to the farmers
06:18 that brought a lot of impact because of the weather.
06:22 You know, when it rains, it rains a lot,
06:24 and when it is dry, it rains a lot.
06:26 So you find that most of the time, farmers don't get to palm
06:32 and do farming.
06:34 >> My name is Sheba Gala.
06:35 I'm from Kisumu County, Chemele-Tamuwadi,
06:40 Moroni Sub-County, and an organization
06:45 called National Practical Action.
06:46 So this project has made me to improve.
06:51 It has also made me to make a step ahead in life.
06:55 Before, I didn't even know how to farm or do farming,
07:02 but since I joined that group, I'm able and I'm very happy.
07:07 I'm a happy woman who can prepare her farm well
07:12 and prepare even the vegetable for the family.
07:15 I can also teach the community about the project.
07:19 Another thing in the project, I've learned
07:23 about the organic farming, the farming that we do
07:28 without using chemicals.
07:30 As you know, the chemicals are very dangerous to our lives,
07:35 but for now, we are using the organic farming,
07:39 such as we have the technologies in the organic,
07:45 such as hydroponics.
07:48 That is the process of how we make the chicken feeds.
07:53 Another thing, we have the vermiculture,
07:56 and another one here, the solar dryer system,
08:00 whereby we dry the vegetables and keep them for future use.
08:04 So what I can do, I can only thank the project very much
08:08 because they have enabled us to learn more about farming,
08:14 and I'm now a happy woman.
08:16 Thank you.
08:17 [END]
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