The National Business Compact on Covid- 19 (NBCC) has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to roll out a countrywide food campaign. Dubbed: ‘One Million Kitchen GardenCampaign’, its objective is to boost the immunity of the Kenyan people during the Covid-19 period. The campaign will be spearheaded by the Ministry Of Agriculture and it seeks to ensure the availability of vegetables, fruits and herbs to enhance proper nutrition in over one million households across the country through the use of kitchen gardens.
The pilot phase of the campaign will begin with 15,000 farmers across forty seven counties who will act as peer-educators. These farmers will play a crucial role in educating community members on technologies to produce, prepare and preserve green leafy vegetables in a bid to boost household immunity during this challenging period.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta has prioritized national food and nutrition security as one of the top four priority areas in the Big Four agenda. As you are aware, agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya’s economy and its performance directly and indirectly affects our overall economic growth,” said Anne Nyaga, the Chief Administration Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture. She added that the agriculture sector plays a pivotal role in ensuring the availability, affordability and consumption of diverse, safe and nutritious food.
Through the support of the Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP), Makueni County will be the front runner of this campaign. Some of the kitchen garden technologies that the farmers will be taken through country wide will include: multi-storey gardens, cone garden, hanging gardens, micro-gardens (tyres and containers), moist bed gardens, staircase garden, aquaphonics and food robe gardens.
The implementation of this campaign will be supported by the National Agriculture and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP), the Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP) and the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP).
Other partners include the National Business Compact on Covid -19 (NBCC) through the Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (AFN) work stream that will be complimenting the project by providing strategic communication on aspects of food availability, accessibility and proper nutrition following the Covid-19 nutrition and healthy diets guidelines to the public.