In the footsteps of Marie Antoinette (kinda)
on Colm in Kenya (Kenya), 11/Jul/2009 10:24, 34 days ago
Solar powered milk, illegal black gold,KilifiDistrict gets the bullet and MamaZelphais eating clothes. For anunproductiveweek it’s acontrastinglybumper blog!As part of our Virtual Marketplace project, which is has more holes than a golf course, we are visiting Divisional AgriculturalOfficers (DAO) for each of the 3constituenciesinKilifi- Bahari,KaloleniandGanze- to learn more aboutagri-produce and market access problems.On Tuesday and Wednesday we went toGanze(take a bow– the poorestconstituencyin all of Kenya) and two of the divisions there -Vitengeniand (la la la)Bamba.Vitengeni’s story is a story of what used to be. Used to be a lot of people, used to be a lot citrus fruits, used to be bumper harvests of maize, used to be reliable rain. People migrated to urban areas, citrus producing plants died courtesy of the 2006 drought and the lack of rain is to be discussed in Italy this week. Gr8!But we did find a Milk Co-operative that have themselves their own solar powered coolers to take milk from throughout the district, store and sell. All the way from Annapolis, MD in the US and financed by the World Bank, these impressive machines currently allows the Co-op to take milk from 12 of their 400 members. 12 from 400. They could produce 250litres a week but only produce 50 and sell 30 because they don’t have a market. None of these figures add up but it’s a visit result – possibly some sort of opportunity if we can find a market and create a value chain. On toBamba, 40kmsin three hours on a bumpy road to the poorest, leastagri-suitable area in Kenya’s poorestconstituency. So you might be surprised that this meeting visit was so much more positive thanVitengeni. The localDAOlisted threeagri-produce with potential for growth– local sisal (sold to broker for 3-5k, sold at market for 10-15k), Meet goat (Bambais famous for their goats sold to broker for 800sh, in Mombasa for 1200-1500sh) and Cashew where there used to be big harvests. Another thing aboutBambais that it is almost completely bare of trees like if it has been waxed (yuk!) clean of all it’s cover, burnt and sold as black gold. Charcoal. Completely illegal and therefore a big money earner for local farmers and police, Charcoal production is having a hugely destructive effect on theeco-system throughout Africa.  There are manyNGOsworking to solve this issue by encouraging the use of locally producedjatrophaseed whose oil is used as to burn for energy as an alternative charcoal or people like WildLiving.co.uk who are producingeco-friendly charcoal (though expensive to buy and production is limited it is a step in the right direction). And of course if more income can be generated from theopportunitieslisted to us by the localDAOthen there may be less of a need for charcoal income inBamba?Once we compile all the products andopportunitiesfrom all divisions within the 3constituenciesin theKilifiDistrict, we will need to find markets and access to create a virtual marketplace. And that’s the other thing that happened this week –Kilifidistrict is getting the bullet. The threeconstituenciesare being made into new districts. So it’sBahari(which is reallyKilifi),KaloleniandGanze. This is part of a (sinister?) plan by Pres.Kibakito greatly increase the number of districts. This plan is not published, debated in Parliament nor discussed with the Prime Minister’s office. More districts means more district sized salaries and costs. Of course Kenya has got heaps of cash for that kind of thing.Finally, MamaZelphagot a loan from SCOPE to buy fish to supplement to her Clothes shop business. Her new shop location is doing really well and figures for her first full week or better than this time last year. But the income she generates from the clothes she uses to feed her house of 13 people. As she puts it‘I just eat the clothes’ i.e. she cannot afford to buy new stock. So the plan is to use the profit from selling fishKsh2,500 (€25) to use to buy her families food for 2 weeks and then use the profit from the clothes to buy more stock – which seems to be more profitable. From there, things should continue to improve. And they are improving for her, which is good. Damn good indeed. But at this stage, one set back would becatastrophicfor her and her family(which blows me away).Funny thing is, I was trying to convince her to spendKsh2,250 or 2,000 on food to allow more money for her clothes shop. That was Friday afternoon, Saturday nightColmgoes on theTamerind Dhowin Mombasa for a volunteer birthday party– DinnerKsh4,000!!Marie Antoinette would be proud of me.