Introduction

Nakuru town

4Nakuru is in the heart of the Great East African Rift Valley, 160 km northwest of Nairobi, and, with an average annual rainfall of about 950 mm, it has a dry sub-humid equatorial climate (Municipal Council of Nakuru 1999). There are two rainy seasons: the long rains from March to May and the short rains from October to December. Over the past thirty years, the population of Nakuru town has increased fivefold from 47,000 in 1969 (Republic of Kenya 1970) to 239,000 in 1999 (Republic of Kenya 2000).

School farming in Nakuru

6Over half of the Nakuru schools cultivated crops (Table 1), predominantly in the schools’ own compounds. Crop cultivation was more common among secondary than among primary schools. Plots ranged from 0.1 to about 5 acres – the average being 0.8 acres – on which a variety of crops were cultivated. Livestock was much less common in schools and those schools that kept animals combined this activity with crop cultivation.

Table 1. Prevalence of school farming and school feeding in Nakuru town, by school category*

Type of farming	All schools (N=116)	Primary schools (N=71)	Secondary schools (N=42)
School farming
crop cultivation	56%	45%	74%
livestock keeping	16%	10%	21%
School feeding	85%	80%	93%

* In this and the following tables and figures, the three schools with both a primary and secondary section are included in the ‘all schools’ column, but not in the ‘primary schools’ and ‘secondary schools’ columns.

Source: School survey 2006.

7The large majority of the Nakuru schools had some kind of school feeding program (Table 1), in most cases consisting of the provision of lunch to pupils. Nearly all schools started a school feeding program “to make pupils stay for lunch” or “to make sure pupils get lunch”. However, in most schools – primary schools in particular – only pupils whose parents were able to pay were eligible for the school’s lunch program. These payments were either included in the school fees or were handed over by the pupil in cash on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. In ten primary schools, orphans and/or pupils from very poor households received free school lunches.

9In a ‘normal’ year in terms of rainfall, an average of about 1,900 kg of crops per school was produced. The year 2006 was such a ‘normal’ year, though primary schools harvested on average more (about 2,250 kg) than secondary schools (about 1,600 kg). Figure 2 indicates how this produce was used. It is clear that most of the produce was destined for school feeding programs. In fact, in most of those schools the entire produce was used for school meals. In a few schools, the harvest of common food crops like kale, beans, maize and cabbage was sufficient for the school’s lunch for a period of two to six months. However, this applied to a minority of the schools only. Some produce was also sold – mostly by primary schools – to school staff and parents or the school’s neighbors. Finally, in some schools, either the school staff or the pupils took (part of) the produce home.

10Respondents were asked about the benefits of crop cultivation for the school (Table 2). The schools’ feeding programs figure prominently because the first two categories in Table 2 are both related to it – the first in the sense of products and the second in the sense of saving on the cost of food that otherwise would have had to be bought at the market. The latter is especially important for boarding secondary schools whose expenditure on food has been rising over the years, while the school fees paid by parents (which are inclusive of boarding costs) have not matched the increase in food prices. In a quarter of the schools, crop cultivation was considered a useful practical teaching tool. Finally, crop cultivation served as a source of income for some schools.

Table 2. Most frequently mentioned benefits of crop cultivation as perceived by the respondents, by school category

Benefit	All schools (N=65)	Primary schools (N=32)	Secondary schools (N=31)
It helps in school feeding program	62%	56%	65%
The school saves money on food	39%	22%	52%
It is used for educational purposes	25%	19%	32%
It is a source of income for the school	12%	19%	7%

Source: School survey 2006.

Challenges

11In an internal memo in 2007, the Municipal Educational Officer of Nakuru urged public primary schools to find a way of providing all pupils with lunch to avoid a situation where pupils would go hungry during the lunch break. For most primary schools, this was a difficult and challenging task. And since issuing the memo, it has become even more problematic due to the steep and rapid rise in food prices that has resulted in an increasing number of parents no longer being able to afford school lunch for their children. Respondents in many schools indicated the wish to expand the provision of lunch to all pupils, the major obstacle being the high prices of food at the market, however. As said, this is where school farming comes in, but then a number of fundamental conditions have to be met:

• Sufficient land. ‘Not enough land’ was by far the most frequently mentioned answer to the question about why non-crop-cultivating schools did not grow crops, while almost half of the schools that did cultivate crops saw their ‘lack of enough land’ as a serious constraint. Even though the compounds of some schools in Nakuru were indeed (too) small for a crop garden, the data suggested that for most schools the availability of land did not have to be a major constraint to start or expand crop cultivation. The example of Nyandarua Boarding Primary School in Nyahururu (see the box above) shows that even a plot as small as one acre can be very rewarding in terms of yield, feeding capacity and (saving) money.

• Sufficient water. By far the most frequently mentioned problem with crop cultivation concerned the climate: lack of rainfall, irregular rainfall, and drought. Nakuru has a relatively dry climate, so most schools face problems with watering their crops. Not every school has its own borehole (only four schools did), but catching rainwater and storing it in tanks – as was practiced by 20 schools – shows that this problem can be solved as well.

• Professional support. The sudden disappearance of the NGO Senvinet created a vacuum in terms of professional assistance. The role of the extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has been marginal, judging by the fact that only two respondents said that their schools had received assistance from MoA extension officers in 2005. It is very important that this vacuum be filled.

• Leadership. School farming is usually the responsibility of one teacher, which means that the success of the school’s farming activities is not only dependent on factors such as land, water and support, but also on individual qualities like a teacher’s organizational skill, enthusiasm, dedication, etc. An example illustrates this. One of the public primary schools in Nakuru did very well in terms of school farming in 2006, producing sufficient quantities of kale, cabbage and maize to last the school a whole year. During a visit in June 2007, it appeared that in the course of 2006 (i.e. after the survey) the teacher in charge of farming activities had been transferred to another school. It took some time before another teacher could be found to take over these responsibilities and the garden had been noticeably neglected during the first half of 2007.

Conclusion

12School feeding – and in particular the provision of school lunches – is high on the development agenda.In Nakuru, only a few schools managed to provide all pupils with a lunch on a daily basis at an affordable price. They have been able to reach a relatively high degree of self-sufficiency in their feeding programs through their school farming activities, thus compensating for the otherwise very high costs involved if all ingredients had to be bought. These schools can serve as an example for others regarding school farming. As the study indicates, constraints in terms of land, water, support and leadership can be overcome. It is important to realize that many schools – and certainly not only in Nakuru – could benefit from the positive experiences of other schools, namely the best performing schools in the Gardens for Life project and also some successful schools in Nakuru town.