HomaBay ATC Principal makes a Field follow up to Got Kowiti Livelihood 6 months after a production Training

On the 12th Feb 2014, Mr. Adel, the Principal of HomaBay Agriculture Training Centre and the farm manager found time amidst their tight schedules to make a follow up trip to Got Kowiti Livelihood and Development Group, a team that had been supported by ALIN and Kobama Ministry of Agriculture to attend a one day training at the centre.
The team had been trained on the bulb onion production and local poultry production in mid last year after they had made consistent request of their interest. 
From what the two officials saw in the field (1 Acre farm of bulb onions), they got pleased and encouraged members present to keep up the amazing spirit. Later after the farm visits, the group received further training from the ATC teachers and i tell you this day was amazing.

Groundnut growth and yield response to fertilizer application

 Groundnut is an important food, feed and cash crop in Eastern Africa but in Kenya it has a yield gap of 2.5 t ha-l and this is attributed to low soil fertility, diseases, poor seed quality and poor husbandry practices. Soil exhaustion being ranked as the major groundnut production constraint in Sub Saharan Africa and particularly in Western Kenya it was necessary to evaluate the response of growing high yielding and disease tolerant (groundnut rosette virus disease) varieties with the use of various fertilizer types and rates. This would ensure increased productivity for the smallholder farmers who predominantly produce the crop at a profitable production regime. On-station experiments (fertilizer types and rates) were conducted in two sites, which included Kenya' Agricultural Research Institute (KARl) site at Alupe in Busia district and Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Training Centre (ATC) site at Siaya district during the long rain (March - July 2007). Read more..

Courtesy of University of Nairobi.

Renewable World Visits Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre

On the 24 February 2014, Mr. Nick Viir from Renewable World organization and Mr. Noah Lusaka from ALIN held a fruitful meeting/discussion with  Ndhiwa residence on the need of embracing cheap green energy.
Issues on solar, wind and Biogas energy dominated the discussion with members citing that firewood is no longer accessible in the region but with the availability of Tubular or SimGas Biogas technology since a number of farmers here keep livestock in large numbers.
The visiting team agreed to work on the proposed ideas from the community and give a feedback on the way forward by possibly end of the year 2014.