Murang'a's food pharmacies to help beat health conditions

As a way of helping residents beat chronic illnesses that have ravaged many families in Murang’a, the county is encouraging the uptake of organic farming.

Through the "Food Pharmacies" programme that is aimed at ensuring residents consume healthy foods, the county is now working with farmers to produce organic foodstuffs through agro-ecology.

The practice, which includes conservation and regenerative agriculture, ensures farmers shun harmful chemicals that have been blamed for many of the diseases being suffered in the county and in the Central region.

Murang'as government has been at the frontline of pushing for the farming approach and made headlines when it passed the agro-ecology act and policy early last year.

Various counties including Vihiga, West Pokot and Nairobi have visited to benchmark on agro-ecology as they push to have similar laws in their devolved units.

One of the model agroecological farms that have had its produce organic-certified is in the Sabasaba area, Maragua sub-county.

Wakas farm belongs to John Kamande, a retired teacher, who practices mixed farming that includes avocados, bananas, herbs, vegetables and fruits.

Kamande embarked on agro-ecological farming in 2015 after retirement and undergoing training on organic avocado farming.

“Soon after, I got a scholarship to go to Senegal for further training and was then commissioned as an organic farming ambassador,” Kamande explained. 

The farmer said with his teaching background, he continues educating others on the benefits of organic farming which is a part of agro-ecology.

Kamande told the Star that since he started organic farming, his health has drastically improved.

“My only regret is I did not retire early and start this sooner. I feel younger and stronger now despite being older. I can run and jump around which I could not before. I had diabetes and it’s no longer an issue now and the quality of my life has really improved. I know I’ll go past 100 years.”

He said farming makes him far more money as he gets direct orders from buyers in neighbouring counties for herbs and fruits such as pomegranates and lime. 

Kamande has installed machines that help him dry and process his produce for value addition.

So far, Wakas farm has had visitors from four European Countries, nine African countries, and 24 counties. Additionally, through a partnership with the county, students who enroll for agro-ecological studies at the Murang’a University of Technology will also receive training at the farm. 

In neighboring Kigumo, a 15-member youth group named Witeithie Gathima-ini Self-help group is also practicing organic vegetable farming. 

Chairperson Bernard Ngugi said they farm on one-and-a half acres of land donated by his father and has incorporated farming of dry-land arrowroots, bananas, sweet potatoes, paw paws and tree tomatoes.

Through the county government, organic farmers have been accorded stalls in markets to sell their produce.

 “We don’t make excess money but we can feed our families and make an extra coin. We started agro-ecological farming in 2019 after undergoing training and our lives have not been the same,” Ngugi said.

In Kangari market, members of Kangari Organic Farmers Market (Kofarm) said they have been minting money from organic farming.

Member Samuel Maina said they have been trained to make compost manure that has even seen tea production in their farms rise.

Maina also grows various herbs which locals seek to help them manage different health conditions.

Echoing this sentiment is County director of agricultural value chains, policy and strategy Daniel Gitahi, who said agro-ecology will help boost the health of residents and improve farm yields.

Gitahi said a sample analysis has shown that most farms have soils with the PH of below three, which is highly acidic, and experience fixation of phosphorous that makes nitrogen unavailable to plants.

“Farmers start seeing an upward curve in production after adopting agro-ecology. We have a clear case of food system transformation. It’s now clear that agroecology is able to transform the eco-system.

“Our coffee, tea and avocado production has been on the decline and research indicates this has to do with soil health that has undergone degradation. With conventional farm inputs, production rises and then declines at some point,” he said.

Gitahi added that most families in the region have been affected by non-communicable diseases and that studies have shown a clear co-relation between the high prevalence and toxicity levels in foods consumed.

Food pharmacies, he said, will help the government significantly reduce its health budget by ensuring people eat healthy foods.

The director said the county is partnering with stakeholders to have centres established where people can buy organic foodstuffs and be trained on how to prepare them to improve or avoid certain health conditions.

“Food has to be consumed as medicine otherwise you will eat medicine as food,” he quipped. 

The county, he noted, is in the process of digitally mapping organic producers in Murang'a and will help identify and link them to the market.

An application christened "I-food SOS" has been generated to connect local organic producers to both local and global markets.

A number of techno-preneurs will be picking the available volumes of foodstuffs, including avocado and coffee, and uploading them on the platform where both local and international buyers can make orders.

“A farmer can just indicate the food they are willing to supply for the week and be checking on their mobile phones for buyers. This is what we are doing with Nairobi County where we have a partnership to supply organic produce to organic outlets,” he said.

Plans to establish at least one food pharmacy in each ward are underway, he said, adding that there are partners willing to fund them.

Gitahi who spoke during a benchmarking visit by West Pokot county officials said his department has been very bold in influencing the rest of Kenya to take up agro-ecology and works with a strong multi-stakeholder platform that helps reach out to other counties.

West Pokot Executive Committee Member for agriculture Wilfred Longronyang said his county is in the process of drafting an agro-ecological policy saying it was evident that the practice reverts soils to their original productivity.

“We have seen outstanding cases of mixed farming in Murang’a on relatively small farms but the integration is perfect. We have clearly gotten what we came for,” he said.

Longronyang said should more farmers take up agro-ecology, the country will be able to produce enough food to sustain itself.

“If the country invests well in arid and semi arid areas, they can comfortably feed every Kenyan and eradicate the need for external aid especially since they make up about 60 percent of the country’s land mass.”

The visit that was facilitated by Bio-Diversity and Bio-Safety Association of Kenya (BIBA-Kenya), an organisation that champions for biosafety and biodiversity conservation, saw the officials interact with individual farmers and learn organic practices.

BIBA-Kenya coordinator Anne Maina said one of its main achievements is pushing for some harmful pesticides to be banned in the country.

“We realised that nine ingredients used in farm chemicals in the country have been banned in Europe. Some cases of diabetes, cancer, obesity, neuro-degenerative diseases, birth effects and respiratory illnesses have been related to toxic foods”.

The country, she said, lacks monitoring data on chemicals input and exposure, and that pesticides are registered without adapting test results to local conditions.