Photos of volunteer farmer trainers in Kenya

Dairy farmers in East Africa are increasing their milk production many times over, thanks to the successful implementation of the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project, a collaboration of Heifer International, Technoserve, the International Livestock Research Institute, African Breeders Services and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). The project aims to double the incomes of 179,000 dairy farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda through improved dairy production and marketing.

Among other activities, the EADD project has been using, with great success, the volunteer farmer-trainer approach—a farmer-to-farmer exchange of knowledge and skills—to disseminate feed and fodder technologies in order to increase milk production.

In November 2013 we visited and photographed several of these volunteer farmer trainers in two regions of Kenya: Nyeri in the Mount Kenya region and Eldoret near the Rift Valley.

Agatha Ngori, one of the volunteers, described her voluntary work:

“Through the help of EADD over the past four years, we have reached farmers in many areas. I teach farmers how to grow grass, fodder trees and fodder shrubs for their cattle; how to harvest and store the fodder; and how to feed the animals for the best milk production,” she said.

“Before being trained, I used to sell less than 5 liters of milk but now I take around 50 liters per day to the dairy. I use less labour because I can store my feed; this means I have time during the day to do other work.”

Another volunteer farmer trainer, Christopher Chepkarwa, says he is now able to feed his four children comfortably through earnings from dairy farming. He says it is not the number of cows but how productive they are, that counts.

“I used to have six cows that produced 12 liters of milk a day. But after being trained, I sold three of those cows. From my three cows I am now selling 21 liters of milk a day.”

Initially, government extension workers working with the EADD project train the volunteer farmers, and they in turn train other farmers within their community.

David Githuma has been trained by his fellow farmers under the EADD project.

“Since I started zero grazing my cows and implementing what I learned on feed a year ago, my milk production has improved from two to 10 liters a day,” he says.

The volunteer farmers said their work spreads the benefits of knowledge within their community.

“I don’t want to be the only one who knows these better dairy farming methods, so I have volunteered to teach others. It’s not good for me to know something and my neighbor doesn’t. I want to develop together with my community,” said Mathew Bungei, another successful volunteer farmer trainer.

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Edited by Daisy Ouya

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See photos from the visit here

Related blog: Volunteer farmers transforming East Africa’s dairy sector

Media Story: Dairy farmers embrace technology to boost output