Kenya’s Maasai start farms to fight hunger

Joseph Nkuito’s flourishing cornfield is a rare sight in Kenya’s Rift Valley and a source of curiosity among his neighbours.

Friends see his eight-foot-tall cornstalks and ask, “Why does your corn look like this?” Nkuito is happy to explain that he plows his field with two oxen, fertilizes it with cow manure and irrigates it with plastic tubes.

Nkuito and his community are members of the Maasai ethnic group, who traditionally make a living by herding cattle on the rolling grasslands of the Rift Valley. Many families still live this semi-nomadic lifestyle and have little experience growing crops.

Joseph Nkuito grows corn and vegetables on his farm in Kenya’s Rift Valley, skills he learned from an MCC-supported organization called the Maasai Food Security Project. MCC news photo: Matthew Lester

However, a growing number of Maasai are choosing to become settled farmers. Increasing populations of people and livestock are threatening the grasslands and making traditional cattle herding more difficult. Periods of dry weather decimate herds and cause widespread hunger.

The Presbyterian Church of East Africa, which has about 25 congregations among Kenya’s Maasai, is managing a project to help Nkuito and other Maasai become skilled crop farmers. The Maasai Food Security Project, as it is called, is funded by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and two partner organizations, Foods Resource Bank and Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

The Maasai Food Security Project organizes an agricultural fair to introduce drought-resistant crop varieties and breeds of livestock to Maasai families. The annual event draws thousands of people for three days of agricultural exhibits and outdoor activities.

Throughout the year, staff from the Maasai Food Security Project visit families to teach agricultural techniques promoted by the Kenyan government. These skills include ox-drawn plowing, fertilizing soil with manure, irrigating fields and making hay.

Solomon Kuntai, a senior field extensionist for the Maasai Food Security Project, says that some Maasai are reluctant to focus their energies on raising crops instead of raising cattle.

Change not easy

“The Maasai, they will always like their cows,” says Kuntai, who is Maasai. “After so many years, change does not come easily.”

However, learning to make hay is helping some families raise crops and cattle simultaneously.

Traditionally, the men of a Maasai family must leave home twice a year for several months to lead their cattle to green pasture. But with the help of the Maasai Food Security Project, about 50 families now make hay to feed their cattle during dry seasons.

The men of these families are able to stay at home and raise crops throughout the year. They are also able to keep their cattle from overgrazing the Rift Valley’s grasslands.

Isaiah Kitunka, a Maasai rancher with 20 cattle, learned haymaking from the Maasai Food Security Project three years ago. He packs cut grass into a wooden box, ties it into bales and stores it above ground. Now Kitunka teaches his neighbours these skills and sells his surplus hay to pay school fees for his children.

“I’ve seen a lot of benefits from haymaking since I started,” Kitunka says. “And I’m praying to God that he will give us more knowledge to continue farming.”

The traditional Maasai way of life is gradually changing. But Kuntai says that an important Maasai value – helping one’s community – remains strong and is the reason for the Maasai Food Security Project.

“The Maasai, they believe so much in helping each other,” he says.

—Tim Shenk, a writer for MCC communications