•The Kenya Network for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies (KENDAT) is working with rural women farmers to improve their livelihood through donkey rearing.
•In rural Kenya, individuals who use donkeys can save 90 per cent of their time which they can invest in other economic activities.
Image: COURTESY
In most communities in Kenya and other developing countries, women play a critical role in the agricultural sector.
They form the backbone of agricultural activities including production, transportation and marketing of agricultural produces.
While they support Africa's population by producing 80 per cent of its food, this gender is hugely left out in conversations that determine policies in the agricultural sector.
Discriminatory laws and practices continue to deprive them of their rights and livelihoods.
This is among reasons the Kenya Network for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies (KENDAT) is working with rural women farmers in Embu County to improve their livelihood through donkey rearing.
According to Eston Murithi, KENDAT CEO, donkeys remain a critical source of support to most households, creating economic security, social status and empowerment to marginalized groups and the poor.
The animals provide a sense of companionship to their owners.
According to KENDAT, it is time to closely focus on the 'beast of burden' and try to empower the rural population, make it understand the importance of the donkey to the entire agricultural value chain.
The network runs the Heshimu Punda Programme (Respect the Donkey) in eight counties in Central and Upper Eastern Kenya.
“This campaign seeks to benefit the rural farmers especially women who plays a vital role in the agricultural sector. Most of these women undergo challenges to ensure their families have food on the table,” he says.
“By encouraging them to improve the welfare of their donkeys, they have realised that their income has increased hence reduction of poverty. They use the donkeys to fetch water for both agricultural and domestic usage,” he adds.
Margaret Munyi, a khat farmer in Murambare in Embu County, is among beneficiaries of the KENDAT 'Heshimu Punda Programme', a campaign that underscores the importance of donkey welfare among small holder farmers in Kenya.
Embu County is known for growing herbal stimulant known locally as Muguka-a variety of Khat has become popular among Kenyan youth especially in urban areas.
She has been in the khat farming for over a decade now but her earnings were little until she decided to purchase a donkey in 2010.
“One of the biggest problems we are facing is the lack of water. The water points we have are located kilometres away and on a day, one can only make a trip to the river. But with the help of a donkey you can carry about four 20-litres jerricans and make up to four trips, hence we have enough for domestic usage and agricultural activities,” Munyi says.
The mother of three ventured into khat farming the same year she got her first donkey whom she named ‘Kativa’.
She attributes her success to her donkey: “With my ‘Kativa’ I find it easy to fetch water for my khat and domestic usage and I can say that my daily income is Sh 500 from just fetching water.”
At her half acre khat farm, she can make between Sh 15,000 and Sh 30,000 per month depending with the market.
“All these have been made possible with the help of my ‘Kativa’ donkey. Previously I could not fetch such amount,” she says.
In 2014, KENDAT helped Munyi and her group to form a self-help group that has enabled them increase their household income.
The group is made up of 20 women farmers and KENDAT has empowered them to care for their donkeys as well as practice table banking which has enabled them pay school fees, build better houses, pay health care expenses and some of have even ventured into small enterprises to supplement their income.
“ Personally I have plans of building rental houses,” Munyi says.
Communities living in semi-arid areas, in counties such as Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Tharaka Nithi, Embu and Laikipia among others, use donkeys to mainly transport water from water points to the homesteads, firewood from farms and forests to the homestead and merchandise to the markets.
In these areas, women who use donkeys can save 90 per cent of time and energy that would have been used to transport water and firewood on their heads or backs.
The time saved by women is usually invested in other economically productive activities such as selling commodities in markets, tendering kitchen gardens, making various merchandise like weaving baskets and other farming activities.