With tourism having come to a global halt and markets closed due to Covid19 the Maasai were deprived of their income and no longer able to buy food.
Maasai traditionally being pastoralists migrating with goats, sheep and cattle through the plains the community decided to look into agriculture during the global pandemic. Angela agreed to support them under one condition – sustainability. Reaching out to her Kenyan network she made contact with Selina Nkoile and James Thiongo Wa Gachie, who both are Permaculture Design Experts. The village community agreed to turn 1 acre, which is a quarter of Kirantos Sunshine Academy’s land into a school garden. This territory is now being set up as Syntropic Agriculture food forest.
First seeds and sprouts were planted quickly and end of November 2020 the first harvest was ready: zucchini, pumpkin, amaranth and various herbs . Beans that had been planted earlier fell victim to a group of Thompson gazelles, who found a whole in the fence (which has been fixed by now). Selina also arranged for tree saplings, which will take their time to carry fruit.
The big drought in 2021 destroyed a lot and we re-established the field in 2022 through 2 big community workshops with over 20 people attending and helping. We also added more water tanks to the garden and thus hope that we will be prepared for the next hot seasons until the garden has reached maturity. Then the need of water will be reduced a lot due to the special design of a syntropic agroforest.
In November 2020 skills4change sponsored Nick Tootio Nabaala, a young member of the community, to attend a permaculture design course. He is now managing the community garden. Pupils and teachers will take care of the garden as part of the school curriculum.
The produce will be used primarily for school lunches and excess will be distributed amongst the parents who help gardening. In the long run we hope that those families start building their own small permaculture gardens next to their houses. A process that has started in the area around Kiranto’s Sunshine Academy already.
Whatever is left of saplings, vegetables and fruit can be sold.
Selina Nkoile is in the process of setting up a similar garden at Naning’oi with the help of Plumpton College (UK) and Sarah Davies and we will drive to add gardens in future projects as well. The goal is to reduce dependency from donations and reach self sustainability for the schools.
The cost of setting up a garden depend on the availability of water.
Once water is assured, the design and supervision by a permaculture consultant and trainer are 300-400 Euro for the start (incl. travel & accommodation – plus we get a special community service price from our trainer)
We typically establish a seedlings station – cost around 350 Euro for shadenet, poles, seeds, consultancy
