DASUDA hosts participatory design workshop with farmers in Kitui
VE-R and Africa Wood Grow recently hosted a participatory design workshop in Kawongo with local community members, including farmers, to develop a resilience-building intervention. The farmers’ engagement was remarkable—they actively participated in every step of the design process.
The workshop began by exploring a range of measures such as agroforestry, beekeeping, sand dams, and more, evaluating their impact on the community and the ecosystem. Together, we developed an integrated solution. The farmers identified water access as a critical need, especially in upstream areas, as it enables other investments in the value chain of products.
Kawongo faces severe water shortages during the dry season, exacerbated by vegetation loss, soil degradation, and erosion on steep slopes, making agriculture increasingly difficult. Climate change has worsened these conditions, causing longer, unpredictable dry periods that threaten farmers’ food security. Access to water is limited to kiosks, dams, boreholes, and sand dams, with community members often spending hours walking to and waiting at water sources. During droughts, farmers face difficult choices: pay for water, risk crop failure, or spend the entire day fetching free water from the Tiva riverbed, 1-5 km away.
During the workshop, participants proposed an intervention centered on a shared farm pond serving approximately five households. This pond would be complemented by agroforestry, cover crops, and terracing to reduce siltation, improve water quality, and maximize its effectiveness.
Last month, we refined the design and are eager to implement it this October before the rainy season starts. The farm pond will be monitored throughout the rainy season to gather insights for further improvements. We hope this prototype will inspire other stakeholders to enhance water security throughout the Kitui region.
The GRASSROOTS project is funded by de Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
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