Value Addition for Agro Income Generation
A group of women, Gituamba women Self help group came together to address the issue of poverty and how to improve their living standards as they take care of their families. Solidarity Association taught them on value addition of stinging nettle(utica dioica) a shrub growing wildly in their area which has medicinal value and is highly nutritious by solar drying it and then grinding it into flour.
A propos de vous
Section 1: About You
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Oui
Nom
Solidarity Association in Kenya
Site Web
Téléphone
+254 7204221428/ 02025228835
Adresse
1690 -10400 Nanyuki, Kenya
Pays
Kenya
Votre organisation est-elle une
organisation à but non lucratif
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 années
Your idea
Name Your Project
Value Addition for Agro Income Generation
Describe your Social Enterprise
A group of women, Gituamba women Self help group came together to address the issue of poverty and how to improve their living standards as they take care of their families. Solidarity Association taught them on value addition of stinging nettle(utica dioica) a shrub growing wildly in their area which has medicinal value and is highly nutritious by solar drying it and then grinding it into flour.
Country your work focuses on
Kenya
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
The Stinging nettle (Utica dioica)grows wildly in the area where this particular group lives. The value addition process is solely done by the women using solar energy. The women have designed drying trays using locally available materials. They do the marketing on their own and manage the whole system on their own. The rest of the community is adopting the technology of Solar drying and they are benefiting too in income generation for their families.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Non
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
More than 70% of the population in rural Kenya live on less than a dollar a day. This initiative is being implemented in the rural villages and it aims at transforming the lives of the group members and has ripple effects to the surrounding areas. The initiative is being replicated amongst other women groups and youth groups in the rural area. The initiative will improve the standard of living by 25%. Currently the women group involved in the project has a total membership of 27. The sales of the value added products enable group members support their families economically and of great importance is that they are able to pay the school fees for their children. Currently the group is earning an average of kshs 30,000 per month. The youth shall be incorporated in the marketing component which will reduce their involvement in idleness which may results to drugs and substance abuse. There is a lot of unemployment among the youth and involving them in the sales of the value added products will provide them with income and shape their future positively. This will be a learning point for the other youth members and more will be incorporated in the expansion phase where more products will be included in the value addition processes.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
The initiative seek to address problems of marginalization in terms of unemployment among most rural women and the youth. Based on the culture of the community that prohibited women from going to school or even getting into formal employment, the woman’s place was and has been in the kitchen. This initiative aims at empowering the rural women and youth through creating an avenue to generate some income and hence contribute towards poverty alleviation. This will stimulate sustainable development in the rural areas as every rural folk, both men and women, will bring about positive change at household and national level.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
The following issues will ensure sustainability i)Community sensitization through posters, meetings and exhibitions ii) Expansion of the existing project to include more products for value addition and establishing market links in bigger towns/markets ii)Mentor ship, involving the youth in marketing and recruiting more women groups to the initiative, iii)including locally available farm produce in the value addition like drying vegetables, value adding milk and Irish potatoes.
Issues that could hinder success
i)Political instability, ii)Economy performance iii) Lack of funding, iv)Prevailing poverty levels: some people may not join the groups due to their poverty status.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
1st year a)Social Change : Socially the communities’ lives will change drastically. This will be evident from the improved agro incomes that will be realized from the sales of value added products. This will lead to improvement of the living standards of the communities b) Women empowerment: In the traditional African setting, most rural women remain submissive to their spouses. Basically women depended on men for any economic support. The initiative will and has already started to make them empowered. Those who are members of the groups in the initiative have a continuous income. They have become income secure and they are able to support their families economically. This has really been very helpful especially for those who are widowed. 2nd year c) School enrolment and completion rate shall increase. Drop out rate in school shall reduce because families shall be food secure. Families shall generate enough income to educate their school going children. Children attending schools shall complete basic and transit to secondary education with ease. 3th year d) All children who have reached the school age shall be enrolled in schools. There will be no idle youth in the village where the project will be implemented. Crime rate and drug abuse cases will have reduced drastically. Communities will dedicate adequate time in their farms producing the raw materials to be utilized in value addition /agro processing and in marketing of the processed products. It is anticipated that there will be a ripple effect to the other areas and similar initiatives will be started targeting more women and youth. The women group is acting as mentors to the youth and other women in the area.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Oui
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
This initiative is in line with the national vision 2030 strategy of making Kenya a middle level economy through stimulating rural-based agro processing units and also the national policy on revitalization of the agriculture sector. The initiative aims to influence Marketing through fair trading principles. This will make sure that the producer, the consumer and the processor benefits along the chain. The producer will get a fair price of the product, the processor too and the consumer will also get a fair price for the product. It will also ensure that the producer will practice environmentally friendly practices that take care of the environment. The initiative is also in line with the global millennium goal one of halving the number of people in extreme poverty and hunger. No child labour will be accepted in the production since sustainable farming practices are being practiced and will continue to be practiced. Standardized production and processing is being practiced. It s anticipated that by the end of three years the incoming new groups will too be producing at the same standards.
Viabilité
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
En place depuis 1 à 5 ans
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Oui
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Oui
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Oui
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Oui
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
The partners are key collaborators of the initiative especially in skills development and capacity building. Of importance to note is the ministry of agriculture who have qualified extension staff in the grass roots. They interact with the poor women on a daily basis and are key in directing the women group on areas related to production of the wild vegetables and post harvest handling. Government based research institutions such as Kenya Agriculture research Institute (KARI) and Kenya forest Research Institute (KEFRI) have been critical in training the women group in value addition in both trees and food crops by products. Solidarity association in Kenya has organized several educational trips to these institutions. The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) has assisted the group in ensuring that they get the standardization mark and certificate. This has made the group”s product to penetrated big supermarkets and health institutions in the region.Many of them have been participating in the exhibitions organized by solidarity and also provide market for the value added products. The stake holders contribute in the preparations of the promotional campaigns during the exhibitions.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
Approximately 250 words left (2000 characters).
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The stinging nettle is a plant that grows wildly in the slopes of the aberdares and Mt. Kenya in Central Province in Kenya. In the earlier days the plant was used as a vegetable by the communities living there. However uncooked leaves of this plant burns the skin once it gets into contact with the body and since this plants grows very fast, people used to cut and burn it especially near homesteads and in the farms. It was the discovery that the plant has medicinal values and is highly nutritious that changed their perception of the plant. Instead of destroying the plant, the group opted to give local communities a solution. They could go around cut all the plants in the farms and homesteads and carry them to a central place where they dried them and stored them. The group also discovered that when the leaves are dried up, they don’t burn the skin. They could comfortably use their hands to crush them and put them in bags for storage. The group then discovered that the plant can be dried, ground into flour and packed. That was the breaking through point for the initiative . Drying is done using solar energy thus incurring minimal expenses. The flour is then packed, labeled and sold to various market. The group has since gone into commercial farming of the plant and many more community members have become interested in growing and value adding it. They are looking forward to recruiting more people but they are strained economically. We are looking forward to working with the change makers to expand and benefit more people through this simple but very beneficial initiative.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Lucy W. Gathogo is the woman behind this idea. Lucy lives at the outskirts of the aberdare forest and on the leeward side of both Mt. Kenya and the aberdares. The area is a semi arid where farming of both food and cash crops have proved very difficult. As we are speaking now the area have not had a good crop for the last three years, thanks for the El Niño type of rain being experienced in the area this season. After loosing her husband a couple of years back, Lucy was left behind with five children to look after. Some of them were very young. Due to the problems she came across in feeding and educating her children, she mobilized other women in the village to form a welfare group where they used to meet once in a week, share experiences and contribute some money for a social welfare kit. It is during one of these meetings that Lucy brought an agenda of starting an income generating activity. After long discussion, the group set on tree nursery establishment. This project did not pick quickly as most of the members expecting since they lacked the required start up capital. It was at this juncture that Lucy came up with the idea of starting a project of making stinging nettle flour. This idea was received well by the members since it required very little start up capital. At the same time the group was trained by caritas Nyeri on the best way to value add and brand this product.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information
 | 101 weeks agoJane Kigotho submitted this idea. |