Samuel Nderitu’s organization, G-BIACK, provides agricultural training to smallholder women farmers in Kenya.
By BGR Staff
In the latest episode of BGR’s Helping Hands Podcast, BGR Board member Daniel Blake speaks with Samuel Nderitu, who, together with his wife, Peris, is co-founder and co-director of the BGR partner organization G-BIACK, the Grow Biointensive Agricultural Center of Kenya. G-BIACK’s mission is to help eradicate poverty and improve poor communities’ health and living standards by promoting ecologically viable and sustainable agriculture and development strategies. Their Kenyan center has trained experts in Grow Biointensive agricultural methods who then replicate the model elsewhere in Kenya and in other African countries such as Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Tanzania.
G-BIACK’s current project with BGR seeks to raise the income of poor farmers in parts of Kiambu and Machakos Counties, areas that are predominantly inhabited by the Kikuyu and Kamba tribal communities, respectively. The project trains smallholder farmers in organic and environmentally sustainable agricultural methods with the long-term aim of achieving self-sustainability. Workshops focus on the cultivation of short-maturing drought-resistant crops, reclamation of species of indigenous foods, and soil fertility management. Farmers are also taught methods of seed-saving, rainwater harvesting, and tree farming. Over the course of the year, the project will directly train 500 farmers, including 375 female farmers. GBIACK estimates that each farmer will train their immediate family members and at least two other community members, expanding the project’s reach to an estimated 3,500 indirect beneficiaries.
In this podcast episode, Dan and Samuel discuss G-BIACK’s work to help smallholder farmers produce healthy food for their families and communities and a reliable income through the use of ecologically responsible cultivation methods. Samuel talks about the obstacles that G-BIACK has encountered, including the challenge of reaching smallholder farmers while working in the shadow of well-resourced large companies promoting genetically modified seeds and chemicals promising fast results—and potentially grave ecological harm. In light of G-BIACK’s focus on women farmers, Samuel also speaks with Dan about the importance of empowering women and young girls and the trickle-down effect this has on changing farming and the culture at large.
Please consider subscribing to the Helping Hands Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts, or listen in the player below. Previous episodes of the podcast feature interviews with Hozan Alan Senauke, abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center and founder of the Clear View Project, and Ayya Yeshe, founder of the Bodhicitta Foundation in Nagpur, India.
To learn more about the Helping Hands podcast or to find individual episodes, please visit the Helping Hands Podcast page on the BGR website.
