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“Kujisaidia”

Kujisaidia was presented in 2013 to a number of farmer communities in Kenya such as Ndhiwa and Mwingi. Kujisaidia is a system based on a social agreement among farmers and satellite technologies. It aims at covering the damages caused by drought. Kujisaidia covers the risks of yield failures for small stakeholders in the case of drought occurrence.  The system is based on modern satellite technologies that monitor the crops health status. If the plants suffer lack of water, the satellite images detect it and create a drought map of the region. More information are given in Kujisaidia leaflet.

 

Introduction

The business case was built in the frame of ISAC project with real farmers facing the problem of drought.  They were offered a real service based on space technologies. The service is called “Kujisaidia”, a Swahili word meaning “Help yourself”. Two farmer communities were visited in the following two villages (see Figure 1):

  • Homa Bay, 55 farmers contacted, 45 of them attended the meeting;

  • Mwingi, farmer community composed of 52 households.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure. 1

 

 

Homa Bay

 

Homa Bay is an intensively farmed rural area close to Lake Victoria. The meeting with the farmers was organized in a hotel close to Homa Bay (Tausi Hotel in Rodi Kopani). The organization of the meeting was strongly supported by Building Africa, a local NGO in contact with many farmers and involved in different development projects in Kenya and Tanzania. Building Africa recruited 55 farmers of which about 45 were able to attend. The meeting was planned in the form of a workshop including the following working sessions:

  • Introductory explanation of the satellite technologies potentially at the service of the farmers. The drought mapping capabilities were explained in words understandable for the farmers. The presentation, rather than words, made use of many images and symbolic figures to explain the concepts. A translator belonging to the farmers’s tribe, Dr. Nyandega, translated the concepts in their own language (Luo). He is climatologist and professor of Remote Sensing at the University of Nairobi.

 

  • The potential satellite based system called “Kujisaidia” was introduced. The system makes use of the satellite derived maps to identify the areas struck by drought during the growing season. The farmers are supposed to join the system initially with a registration fee of 1000 Kes (about 9 euros). At the end of the growing season the final drought map will indicate the farmers entitled to payouts. An intermediary person chosen by the farmer community will be responsible for collecting the fees, deducting his/her personal expenses, receiving the drought maps from ISAC and eventually for compensating the entitled farmers. It was clarified that ISAC will neither put in any money for the farmers nor will deduct anything for the project itself. All finances involved in the system must be farmers’ money.

 

  • A test simulation was done using play money and sample drought maps. All farmers took part in it. They chose their own trustworthy intermediary responsible for managing the system and their money. A simulation of registration in the system with fake Kes notes was done. Registration forms were filled in by all farmers and their farms were identified on a geographic map. A sample drought map was generated by the system.  Eventually 3 farmers living in the dry areas, as identified by the satellite maps, were compensated with fake Kes notes. 

 

  • The following day a visit to some of their farms was organized in Ndhiwa. Many farmers openly expressed their many troubles relevant to the arid land, poor irrigation, poor market accessibility, failed attempts with jatropha crop to produce biofuel and other problems.

 

For all reference materials, containing more information on the initiative and workshop, Click on the links below:

 

 

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