The Positive Kitchen Garden
This is a name that we have given to our core work - to encourage
community groups to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Rich in the
minerals and vitamins to boost the immune system of HIV Positive
people, they help improve the whole community's nutrition and
health. The Positive Kitchen Garden can often utilise 'unused land'
, bringing even small areas into food production.
Real Impact agronomists train the group how to get all-year-round
production using modern farming technology such as drip irrigation,
hybrid seed, vermi-compost vermi-liquid fertiliser and integrated
pest management (IPM) to reduce reliance on pesticides and inorganic
fertilizers but improve yield and quality.
Finance
If necessary, Real Impact arranges funding or loans from
microfinance sources to purchase the equipment to start the
programme - tools, drip irrigation, water storage, composting units,
seeds and fertilizers. This is in the form of a loan which is repaid
from earnings over time as the PKG becomes productive. The Community
group provides the security (fencing) and all the labour needed to
meet agreed planting programmes and work plans in collaboration with
a Real Impact agronomist.
Growing and using
Real Impact, with funding from USAID, through the KHDP programme
(Kenya Horticultural Development Programme) has developed a series
of 'How to Grow' manuals for the many different crops. A Cook Book
has also been developed by Real Impact (again with USAID funding) to
provide guidelines on how to utilise some of the less familiar
crops, such as beetroot, indigenous vegetables, butternut squash,
into nutritious tasty meals.
A programme from real life
The idea started with a commercial company that
had spare land around its crops. It allowed a club
of workers to use the land; each member committed to
work for a minimum number of hours each week of
their own time. Some people were HIV+; a group for
whom good nutrition is particularly important in
conjunction with ARV treatment.
The company set up a canteen and
employed a cook to provide a hot mid-day meal every
day for the garden club workers. Soon there was
enough produce for each member to take home, either
for the family table, or to be sold for cash.
Each Positive Kitchen Garden is about 1-2 hectares in area and
there are 50 or so members. The aim is to produce enough vegetables
for them and three other members of their immediate families