MOOF –Africa is a local Non-for Profit Social Enterprise working with smallholder farmers on sustainable food and nutrition security, agribusiness and environmental conservation. Permaculture (a holistic farm design and planning concept) and Agroecological concepts are used to address food insecurity and malnutrition challenges by offering local solutions to the community making an overall well fed and wealthy communities in Kenya.
The current food insecurity challenge is that most families do not have enough food for their large families on the table of 5- 8 family members. This has been greatly compromised by high poverty levels where food produced from their subsistence farms is sold to earn income. This deprives households enough food. Other challenges involve soil degradation due to poor farming techniques where synthetic fertilizers are applied at every time the farmer does planting. This has affected soil health, soil life,soil fertility and destroyed soil structure with the soils assuming a low Ph.
This leads to low crop yields. Malnutrition challenge is experienced in many households due to over use of high carbohydrate foods with less fresh green vegetables and protein foods in their diets.. Most of the vegetables grown is sold for cash and less is left over to be used by the family. The EcoLINE GREENS Kikapu Enterprise will demonstrate vegetable value addition in the kitchen at MOOF organic restaurant with selected simple recipes. This will help to make fresh vegetables a first choice in many households in Nanyuki region and in Kenya at large.
This is achieved by making information on agroecological technologies and Regenerative Permaculture available to smallholder farmers. This information is appropriate to meet the basic needs of humanity to enable them achieve a more balanced food source with high nutrition grown without using hazardous pesticides. MOOF-have been engaged in farmers training towards sustainable agriculture through on farm education and demonstrations at MOOF for the last 15 years..A total number of 5,000 smallholder farmers have received training in Organic Agriculture through residential training and demonstrations at MOOF farm and on their own farms in the Mount Kenya region.
The EcoLINE GREENS Kikapu initiative will help to turn around smallholder farmers from purely subsistence farming to a more commercial oriented farming with ready markets for their fresh farm produce. Laikipia county has a total cultivated area totaling to 63,428 hectares in 2017 for subsistence agriculture. About 100,000 smallholder farmers grow food crops such maize, Irish potatoes, beans and kales. MOOF will start working with 8,000 farmers to engage in vegetable production for the EcoLiNE Kikapu Enterprise. . (Sources: Laikipia County integrated Development Plan 2018-2022, Ministry of Agriculture, Laikipia County.).
This model will involve the home delivery service and later to supply and get involved in the running and management of the EcoLINE GREENs COOP Grocers which will be established in many urban towns in Kenya.This will encompass the farm ‘crop to shop” supply chain model. We will start small with one or two shops in Nanyuki town then expand as demand increases to other towns. This will help cut-down the costs of establishment and be less capital intensive. The profits generated will be ploughed back to expand the business in other towns supplied by organised farmers in close vicinity to those towns to help save operation and transport time.
Farmers own motorbikes which they will use for delivery of their vegetables to MOOF packwarehouse. Here vegetables will be sorted out, processed and well arranged in the kikapu ready for delivery to customers. This will be delivered to customers and designated drop off points in Nanyuki town