Virginia, having done much better, has sold 100 liters, which she bought at 17 shillings and sold at 20.It’s a lot hard work for 300 shillings, about 3.80 US dollars. Both women loose about 100 shillings of that in transport to the market. They sell from six-thirty in the morning and are finished by ten, when they go back home and take care of the household and their small farms. Both women are trying to put kids through school. Between them Virginia and Jane have dozens of plastic Jerry cans to carry their milk and they share one of the new more hygienic aluminium milk containers, designed by a CGIAR partnership with local traders and researchers and produced by a local manufacturer. But at a cost of almost 2,000 shillings, they can’t afford more than one. The new cans cost 1,850 shillings to manufacture.” They are worth having,” she says.” It’s good for transport, no spilling.” Over the five years they’ve been doing this they have become good friends. They make an average of 250 shillings a day and for them it is good supplementary income-more than the minimum daily wage in Kenya.
Traditional dairy markets, which handle unpasteurized or “raw” milk, and traditionally processed dairy products such as fermented milk, are behind the dairy boom in many developing countries. In Kenya, where the per capita consumption of milk totals some 100 kilograms annually, traditional milk markets supply over 80 percent of milk sold. Compared to their commercial counterparts, small-scale dairy agents like Virginia and Jane provide cheaper milk to customers while paying better prices to providers. Despite this, public officials concern about the possible health risk of consuming unpasteurized milk have in the past discouraged the country’s indigenous milk markets. Today, Kenya’s dairy development authorities urgently need more reliable information to make judicious pro-poor policies.
In national consultations a wide spectrum of stakeholders supported the project’s policy recommendations, thereby increasing the base of support for milk marketing by and for the poor. These recommendations provide more “carrots” (licensing, training) than “sticks” (policing) to small-scale operators. A new dairy development policy and a revised dairy bill now explicitly recognize the predominance of the raw milk trade in Kenya, its importance to the poor, and the need for regulations and technologies to optimize the quality of raw milk. But while these changes are beginning at government level, the policies may take years to filter down to the Garissa road intersection where milk hawkers work. They are still unlicensed and can still feel harassed by milk regulators.
“If they were licensed, they could sell the milk legally, without fear,” says John Ayoro.”Now any time, they can be pushed off.” And when you are making a run for it from authorities, the plastic jerry cans are a lot lighter than the new aluminium ones.
In a slight twist of circumstances Peter Kamangu, a young milk hawker, reacted to these regulatory constraints by choosing instead an entrepreneurial path and opening a proper milk bar. His consumers are assured of receiving hygienic milk and he also sells a yogurt-like, fermented milk product. But while he makes 500 shillings a day from his small store, hi rent is 6,500 shillings a month with electricity and water. So more than 200 of those 500 shillings he earns each day go to overheads.” It’s like I’m almost getting nothing,” he says.” I earned more on the streets.” His story drives home the need for the new policy initiatives to be implemented in order for the poor to progress. The urban dairy market is still large and unregulated. The new policies could result in farmers being able to sell more milk for higher prices and achieve more stable livelihoods.
The wakulima market, in the city center of Nairobi, opens at five in the morning and is empty by noon. Nobody knows how much of the produce sold here is grown in and around the city. The mud and muck underfoot is at least 8 centimeters deep and smells sewage. Behind the gates, bananas, potatoes, pineapples, sukuma wiki-a popular African leafy vegetable-tomatoes, lemons, and oranges are all for sale. It should be, but is not, an appetizing sight. Rather it is dirty and tumultuous, with hawkers yelling and pushcarts being cumbersomely shoved around.” About a third of these farmers use raw sewage for irrigation,” says John. He knows where many of the vegetables come from.
As far as contamination of human waste is concern, experts point out that the main health risk is to the farmers, unless consumers eat the vegetables uncooked or the fruits with their skin on. But there is far more risk from toxic contamination in towns. Industries, petrol stations, garages, and workshops discharge chemicals into the waste water as well. Currently the CGIAR is supporting a multi-stakeholder health impact analysis of urban agriculture. The results should help urban planners and farmers in many cities of developing countries.
In Kahawa Soweto village in Kasarani, 21 kilometers west of Nairobi, there are around 5,000 inhabitants, with about half of the adult population involved in agriculture. Nearly a quarter of this agricultural production involves growing crops. Vegetables growing are preferred, as the market is good and money better. Many sell direct to their neighbors in the slums. Crops are grown along the railway line that cuts through the slum, and by the River Kiuu, which is fed by more than four sewage drainage systems. Sewage water irrigation is carried out mainly around the three sewage-stabilizing ponds at the extreme south side of the village.
Although a 2002 municipal control program attempted to terminate the practice, vegetable growing is still the major form of crop farming in this “irrigated” agricultural system. Urban farmers in the area are able to farm because they have access to free land nearby, and on a recent visit, they were still irrigating their crops with sewage water diverted from an obviously hand-punctured sewer pipe. None would comment on where their water came from, but the crops visible from high point in the slums were plentiful. The local farmers call this sewage-farming irrigation “night water.”
On a brighter note, Soweto is cleaner than most slums in and around the city. There is an organized community-based waste management group called Soweto Youth in Action, which charges 20 shillings per household per bag of waste collected each week. On a free public piece of land in the village, the group sorts the household waste and composts the organic component, adding manure to enrich it on advice from KARI. Youth in Action has been giving this organic material free to local vegetable farmers, but now they hope to grow amaranth as a commercial crop with the enriched compost. With the help of the city council, some of the organic component is taken to another city dump site. The group’s activities are boosted by a high literacy level among the members, the readiness of the members to provide manual labor, and availability of tools like wheelbarrows which were bought using investor’s funds.
Soweto is also home to livestock farmers, who tend cattle's, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, and rabbits. Cattle are plentiful and much desired, as they produce manure useful in farming and milk for sale and for home consumption. Most of the livestock farmers practice zero-grazing in 6-meter-square enclosures that double as home and hearth to farmers as well. The animals produce huge amounts of manure for composting, yet nearly two-thirds of the total manure produced in the village is dumped in public places-behind the village- and large heaps can be found piled around Soweto. Only 35 percent of the manure produced in the village is used for crop production.
These urban farmers will, within two decades, constitute the majority of farmers in Africa. Half the world’s population now lives in town or cities, and by 2020 this figure is expected to rise to 60 percent. The developing world will absorb most of the additional 1.5 billion urban dwellers. In Africa alone 50 percent of the population will move to cities. Already these trends are having sever effects on food security, poverty levels, and unemployment.
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