Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

As you may remember we launched a Seed Bank Appeal in March 2006 in response to the famine situation in Kenya. 1,014 families in twelve communities where Excellent Development works were experiencing severe food shortages due to successive crop failures over the last two years. We implemented two programmes to help these families continue to build a sustainable future: the Food for Work Programme and the Seed Bank Programme.

The Seed Bank Programme provided each family with seeds, comprising a range of three crop species – grains like sorghum, pearl millet and cow peas. All families receiving seeds had to terrace their land first to maximise the chances of success. Assuming a successful harvest they have to return twice the quantity of seeds back to their community store, which will enable them to gain protection from future droughts. This will enhance our other programmes of dam building and terracing to deliver a sustainable future.

We have now had details of the harvests from 3 communities Meka, Mukika and Munathi, comprising 238 families. In these more marginal areas it is usual for them only to plant once, rather than twice a year – with the most effective time is October rather than March. However, given the desperate situation we supported March planting and this was reflected in the results. Overall, the Pearl Millet harvest were the best as it survives better with poor rains, whilst Sorghum and Cow Peas were less successful. Out of 540 kg of millet seed given, 30 times (15,404 kg) was harvested – with 1,857 kg being kept aside for the community seed banks. This is 3.4 times what was given, rather than twice as much, because other crops weren’t as successful.

The Meka community had the best rains which enabled them to successfully grow all crops, particularly as they had worked hard to terrace and manure their land as well as plant in a timely fashion. They have returned 2.8 times the Pearl Millet into their store and 40% for Sorghum and Cow Peas. They did however harvest over 3,000 kgs of each crop – between 20 and 25 times of what they planted, which is a good return in the conditions. They have also developed sustainability by storing 340 kg of Dolicho and 52 kg of Green Gram seed.

In Mukika and Munathi the rains were sparse and variable meaning that the Sorghum and Cow Pea harvests failed with only Munathi managing to get 600 kg of Sorghum – putting 36 kg in the store. However, the Pearl Millet harvest was good – 14,000 kg was harvested – 35 times the weight planted. The communities added 3.7 times of the original seeds issued back into their store. This will enable them to buy other seeds for next season.

Overall, we are very pleased with the results, achieved in a very difficult environment. We will ensure that the next programme focuses on the October planting and the Field Officers will work with individual farmers to ensure lessons from last season are learnt. With the rains being bad in many areas, some groups retained some seeds which will be planted in October to achieve greater success.

We are very grateful for the help given by individuals and trusts who responded to this urgent appeal. It hasn’t solved food security in these areas but has enabled communities to take a big step forward – thanks to you.