A team of women from the UK food and farming industry, who are midway through a fundraising challenge in Kenya, are appealing for further donations.
The GROW for Good Challenge aims to raise £75,000 to support Farm Africa’s work supporting small-scale farmers in eastern Africa to grow and sell more, while adapting to climate change and protecting the environment.
After an eight-hour flight to capital city Nairobi, followed by a three-hour drive to the rural county of Embu, the team set up camp on Sunday ready for their adventure cycling 75km along country roads, visiting farms run by female farmers taking part in Farm Africa’s regenerative agriculture project.
On arrival at each farm, the team has put down their mountain bikes and got stuck in helping with hands-on regenerative agriculture activities like composting and mulching, which help farmers increase their yields in a sustainable way, while also minimising costs.
‘I’m pretty blown away’
Former NFU president and Farm Africa ambassador Minette Batters, who is taking part in the challenge, said she was impressed by the difference adopting regenerative agriculture practices had made for Juliet, a farmer supported by Farm Africa.
“Today we were at Juliet’s farm and everyone’s quite blown away,” said Batters. “We’ve just cut bags of this reed for the goats and it’s a quite a walk, it’s probably about half a mile. Juliet does this twice a day to get food for the goats. We’ve been composting, we’ve made over a metre high of compost, which Juliet is also using within her farm business, but also selling.
“As a UK farmer, I’m pretty blown away by what Juliet is doing, because this is all about biology. It’s taking all the expensive inputs out: Juliet was saying she used to buy in fertiliser that was very expensive. Now she makes all her own compost. It’s a biological process that is saving her money, is far more sustainable and it’s good for the planet. It’s a win-win. Everyone here has been blown away by the experience of meeting these farmers.”
Frances Bryan of Finsbury Foods explained more about how Farm Africa supports farmers to learn about regenerative agriculture through a network of village-based advisors, who demonstrate good agriculture practices to other farmers:
“I was really made up with it. It was really hard work as well,” she said. “The work that goes in, that Farm Africa put into the farms and the ladies at the farms was just amazing to see, and to see how they set up test patches in their fields to persuade other farmers what’s the best way of working in agriculture, just to prove it to them what they’re doing normally versus the alternatives.”
At the end of their journey, on 25 October, the team will take part in a roundtable event with female industry leaders in Nairobi to raise awareness of the need to drive positive change for women in the global food system.
The 12 women on the trip are: Judith Batchelar (Farm Africa Ambassador & NED); Minette Batters (Farm Africa Ambassador); Frances Bryan (Finsbury Foods); Anne-Marie Cannon (RH Amar); Mia Elizabeth Hartwell (Hubbub); Jane Lockwood (Daemon); Katie Major (Danish Crown); Caroline Mason (Seeds to Thrive); Marnie Millard (NED); Michelle Morris (University of Leeds); Helen Newbrook (Savills); Kate Taylor (ABP).
So far, the team’s fundraising total stands at just over £49,000. Donations can be made here.
For more information, or for details of corporate sponsorship packages, please visit the challenge webpage.
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