Cashew as a vehicle for the eradication of poverty

ETG’s affiliated party, Empowering Farmers Foundation, is working hard to improve livelihoods in a small coastal ward in Kilifi County, Kenya. Funded by the innocent foundation UK, the 3-year Matsangoni Community Development Project was launched in 2022 to increase farming income through new cashew plantation and household nutrition through the reintroduction of finger millet amongst 3,300 households, impacting approximately 15,000 people.

Most of these households struggle to put their children through secondary school. For some context, the minimum wage in this region for casual labour is about $100 a month. Job opportunities are scarce and income from farming is low. As per the Foundation’s data, estimates of monthly income per household stands at about KES 20,000 = $150 (or annual KES 240,000 = US$ 1,600). During the 2023 rainy season, Empowering Farmers Foundation propagated, distributed and supported the planting of over 100,000 high yield variety polyclonal cashew seedlings across the ward.

In 6 years, income from these trees would equate to covering secondary school fees, healthcare, clothing and food for at least one child per household for one year. 150 lead farmers have been assigned groups and are responsible for ensuring that the trees under their jurisdiction survive through the dry seasons, pests and diseases, and livestock. We are not just distributing seedlings, but making sure the trees grow to maturity. To ensure fair pricing, the foundation has also supported the establishment of the Mibibo Cashew Farmer Cooperative and is linking it with off-takers and processors to become a central aggregator of raw cashew nut in the region, making redundant exploitative middlemen.

In parallel, the Foundation has mobilised a third of the total ward’s population to reintroduce the cultivation of finger millet, a highly nutritious, indigenous and drought resistant alternative staple to maize. After a six-month sensitisation campaign that used all channels including village gatherings, campaigns by community health volunteers, school awareness camps, cooking workshops, mass media bulletins, murals and SMSes, the targeted farmers received GAP training and certified seeds to plant over a quarter acre each. In the 2023 harvest, these 1,100 farmers harvested between 2 – 3 bags of finger millet weighing 90kg each. We are now tracking the health of a select group of young children under the age of 5 to evaluate the changes in health and wellbeing. The remaining cohorts of 2,200 farmers will receive the same support packages in the next two consecutive planting seasons.

And finally: bees. Bees are great pollinators and produce honey, another income-generator. Understanding that changing livelihoods requires a holistic approach, and that youth unemployment is rife in the community where we work, Empowering Farmers Foundation has helped set up a youth group consisting of 25 women and men who received training in apiculture and seed funding to install 10 bee hives and purchase one honey extractor. Once they have completed a few harvests, they will be able to scale up, set up more hives, and make more money from honey!