After two hours of driving under the scorching sun in Kitui Rural, we finally arrived at the Kamantho Farmers Marketing Cooperative Society warehouse, the only aggregation store in the region, located in the heart of the village market. Initially established as a self-help group in 2020 and later registered as a Community-Based Organisation (CBO), the Cooperative now serves over 305 registered members and about 2500 non-members from Maleku, Kamantho, and Nthongoni locations.
We were greeted at the Kamantho premises, an imposing building sitting on about one acre of land, by Lyna Judy Nzambia, the cooperative’s chairperson, and several of her committee members. Lyna, a wife, and mother of four, initially employed conventional practices that depleted soil health and fertility. Living in a semi-arid area plagued by the effects of climate change and water scarcity, she struggled to harvest more than two bags of green grams per acre. Faced with poor yields and creeping poverty, she was forced to sell her meager produce to brokers who often exploited her, leaving her in a worse situation.
However, a silver lining emerged in 2020 when the Cereal Growers Association (CGA), an implementing partner of the Strengthening Regenerative Agriculture in Kenya (STRAK) project, introduced regenerative agriculture to the area, challenging conventional norms. STRAK is a project of AGRA with funding from the IKEA Foundation. Lyna and her fellow farmers underwent training on regenerative agriculture practices that restore soil health, improve crop yields, and increase farmers’ income. They also received training on post-harvest handling, entrepreneurship, self-help groups, and aggregation of farm produce.
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