In Matalani village,Mbooni sub county, Makueni County, Marieta Kisavi a mother of three, is among the 2,000 smallholder farmers benefiting from the zai pit technology aiming at producing food under the extreme drought effects of climate change. Act! support to Zinduka Afrika, a local NGO, is promoting climate change adaptation among her agriculture program which seeks to alleviate food insecurity caused by the changing climatic conditions. In the recent failed rain season in the larger Makueni County, which saw farmers hardly harvest anything from their farms, Marieta was able to harvest three bags of maize crop from less than an eighth of an acre to the surprise of many. She chose to try this technology in the least fertile area of her farm as she doubted its success just like any other farmer would do. She notes that as the other farmer’s struggles to look for food, she is assured that the harvest will support her to the next rain season.
According to Zinduka Afrika Project coordinator Abel Omariba, the new technology is the talk of the area as more farmers are now preparing Zai pits in readiness for the next rain season.
Speaking while meeting the farmers, Act! Agriculture Program Officer Ms. Nancy Rapando, urged farmers to take up such technologies that will see them harvest even in the driest period of the year. She added that non state actor organizations have a big responsibility of facilitating technology transfer for such practices that have been previously researched and shelved in form of journals instead of reaching out to the farming community for uptake.
The project is under the Act! Changieni Rasili Mali Facility funded by the Embassy of Sweden and Department for International Development/ Ukaid
