NAIROBI: Desertification in Samburu County has reached a level never seen before. And there is urgent need for more measures to revert the situation.
Israeli environmentalist Aviram Rozin is on a voluntary mission in the county to show the locals how turn around the slide to desertification.
Through a unique farming system, permaculture or food forests (gardening), Rozin wants to reclaim degraded land and promote food security.
The system involves incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines, and perennial vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans.
Rozin, the founder of Sadhana Forest Kenya, applies a low-maintenance sustainable plant-based food production and agro-forestry system.
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Permaculture started in 2003 in India and five years ago in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
In Samburu, it began last year as an initiative to support the semi-nomadic community to reclaim the degraded environment by planting drought-resistant fruit-producing wild trees.
“We plant trees around people’s manyatta and our vision is that every manyatta will have a small food forest growing in concentric circles, touching each other to create a continuous food forest,” says Rozin.
In the process, a huge conservation effort is going on. Also there is the nurturing of food security though in a small scale.
More than 18 species of indigenous and drought-resistant fruit trees which are rich in nutrients are planted.
Water harvesting structures (swales made on contours or land of same topographical heights) directly water the plant.
The soils on the swales are improved by planting nitrogen fixers like beans.
About 100 farmers across Samburu central have planted the trees in their manyatta.
Afzelia africana, or African oak, whose fruits are said to be rich in proteins and iron are among the trees making up the food forest.
Moringa stenopetala, or mother’s helper, which is also planted, increases breast milk and reduces malnutrition among babies.
Rozin says the residents understand that their semi-nomadism has to be slightly adjusted to create dependence on crops and not just livestock.
Inside the 11-acre land now turned into a forest in the midst of Samburu is a training centre with more than 35 volunteers from various countries across the world and live in tents.
“Some of the trees we are growing will survive for over 100 years and we are creating something long lasting with low maintenance,” he says, explaining that the trees require little water to survive.
Rozin says growing treees on private lands will protect them more unlike in public forests.
He reveals that the United Nations Development Programme granted them US$ 50,000 (Sh500 million) which enabled them to put up the centre, a green energy; windmill and solar panels which now generate 3.3 kilowatts of power used in the training centre.
The power is also used to generate water from a borehole and there is always enough supply of power and water to area residents.
“I know at one time we will generate forest covers to the extent of influencing the rain patterns,” says Rozin.
