Conservation Agriculture Takes Hold

Since her husband passed away, Ruth has practiced conventional farming on her own for many years and knows that the land preparation and weeding involved in conventional farming mean high labor costs. She is an eager adopter of methods that promise to reduce those costs. During a conservation agriculture training with World Renew partner, Anglican Development Services Mt. Kenya, Ruth was introduced to the use of mulch and cover crops as a means of soil restoration, water conservation, and crop variation. Since she had lots of mulch material available from leftover livestock feed, Ruth started mulching a quarter-acre of her land last year. In that season, this quarter-acre provided Ruth her only harvest and this was her “CA turning point.”

“With CA, My crop is healthy even the colour dark green and I expect to harvest despite the erratic nature of rainfall this season. In the coming season I intend to expand my whole farm under mulch.”

After that harvest, Ruth increased her land devoted to conservation agriculture practices to two acres, which again yielded much more than the other part of her farm. Ruth’s success led to her inclusion in a visiting tour with the Canadian High Commission, Head of Cooperation, Kenya in June of this year. Her story was captured in the Kenyan national newspaper, the Daily Nation, in a feature on “climate smart” farming.

Please Pray for Kenya

We give thanks to God for:

relatively peaceful elections in Kenya this month
a year of great favor from different stakeholders — we are excited about the new financial year and the opportunities it promises for World Renew and its local partners

We appreciate your prayers for: