By Faith Kisiangani and
Monica Soila
On the bottom of Oldonyo-orok mountain in Maili Tisa, Kajiado
County, there lays a two and half acre land owned by a vibrant women group
called Noontoto. Noontoto Women Group is made up of 25 women who grow tomatoes
in a green house for food security.
The group was formed in 2003 as a mary-go-round with the main
objective of supporting each other economically. Among one of their successful activities was buying
and selling cows. This was a very profitable venture and many group members
benefited from the profit. They would collectively contribute a given amount of
money, buy and fatten cows for sell. They then used some of the money to pay
school fees for children, buy household items for themselves and save the rest
of the money.
In 2013, the group was lucky to get some support from Dupoto-e-maa, an NGO that works in Kajiado County. According to Mr. Simon Sitelu of Dupoto-e-maa, the project objective was to empower women in the county with relevant skills and tools so as to improve their livelihoods. So far they have supported 13 other women groups in the county.
The package to the women groups include; a green house 5m x
16m, a solar powered water
pump, a tank with capacity of 2000 litres and drip liners. The group opted to farm tomatoes and sell them because of their high demand in the region. The area experiences inadequate rainfall and most community members are pastoralist, keeping large herds of cattle. This fact has ultimately affected the groups’ tomato farming green house project because the first time they planted tomatoes, the plants failed due to lack of water. The group then employed drip irrigation on the greenhouse by using water pumping technique. Despite this fact, the tomatoes failed the second time after being affected by a disease. Regardless of the two failures from the tomato project, the women are very resilient, hopeful and hardly discouraged.
pump, a tank with capacity of 2000 litres and drip liners. The group opted to farm tomatoes and sell them because of their high demand in the region. The area experiences inadequate rainfall and most community members are pastoralist, keeping large herds of cattle. This fact has ultimately affected the groups’ tomato farming green house project because the first time they planted tomatoes, the plants failed due to lack of water. The group then employed drip irrigation on the greenhouse by using water pumping technique. Despite this fact, the tomatoes failed the second time after being affected by a disease. Regardless of the two failures from the tomato project, the women are very resilient, hopeful and hardly discouraged.
“This is the third time that we have planted the tomatoes in
the greenhouse. We are very hopeful and we trust God that the plants will not
fail us again. The good thing is that we have learnt where we went wrong the
first and second time and made the necessary corrections. Water is the hardest
problem to tackle right now though we still trust God for the rains to fall
soon. The reason why we cannot change what we plant in the green house is
because of the high demand of tomatoes in our region compared to other plants.
More so, Tomatoes are more profitable compared to kales…” Mrs. Joyce Nairraba,
the group chairperson told ALIN staff who had gone to assess the group.
The group has untapped potential to undertake many projects
on their farm. They are endowed with two and half acres of land on which they
have a green house project initiated by Dupoto-e-maa. The group got
support from some Swedish donors hand put up a house that is leased to people for various activities.
Noontoto’s main source of water is from a natural stream from
the mountain nearby. This source is not stable since area experiences prolonged
dry spells therefore affecting agricultural activities. The water collects into
an underground tank and then solar pump is used to thrust water into the
elevated tank then into the drips.
Solar powered water pump system has saved the women a lot of
hustle and time. They were initially using donkeys to fetch water for the farm.
At times they would use generator to pump the water; which was quite a
challenge given the price of fuel. The introduction of this technology has
lessened the burden especially because solar energy is free, clean, readily
available and plenty in the area.
The group has big plans for the future. They plan to keep
dairy cows on their peace of land. They also plan to start a chicken rearing
project.