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FORMAT’s Next Actions
Improved management and value-added processing of organic resources in both rural and urban settings of Kenya will continue to offer great potential toward food security, rural development and environmental protection. FORMAT and its grassroots cooperators will continue to organize Countrywide Events over the next two to provide tools and useful information on organic resource management, to strengthen grassroots operations and to better popularize sustainable land management technologies. FORMAT will also identify under-utilized organic resources in seven different Kenyan agro-ecosystems and work with local organizations process them into marketable organic fertilizers using state-of-the-art composting techniques. Crop response trials will later be established to examine the yield and economic returns from these organic fertilizers compared to other land management options. Furthermore, a mechanism is planned to provide financial and technical support to innovators in order to assist them in refining and commercializing promising pilot products and pioneering technologies that have emerged through past FORMAT activities. A proposal to support these planned activities was submitted to, and recently has been approved by the Rockefeller Foundation. If you have interest in any of these planned activities, please visit the FORMAT website (www.formatkenya.org) or contact FORMAT headquarters for further details.
We owe gratitude to all the local organizers and collaborators: SACDEP (Thika), EM-Kenya and Prime Hotel (Embu), Gitundu-Gataro SHG and Hotel Waterbuck (Nakuru), Kenyan Smallholders Advancement Group and St. Phillip’s ACK Church (Kiambu), Hyacinth Crafts, Kisumu Innovation Centre Kenya and Ukweli Pastoral Centre (Kisumu), Jamii na Maendeleo and KPA Mbaraki Sports Club (Mombasa), Resource Projects Kenya and Chavakali High School (Kakamege/Vihiga) and Manor House Agricultural Centre (Kitale). The coverage of the event by journalists from Kameme FM (Kiambu Event), Citizen Radio (Nakuru Event) and Kenya Television Network is greatly appreciated. Special thanks go to Isabellah Mwagodi of KTN and her crew for recording the television documentary on FORMAT events. We appreciate the services by Henry Hunt and his staff at the UNON Conference Services at Gigiri for printing this report and other information material. Thanks are due to the FORMAT participants who take extra effort to prepare the attractive and informative exhibits that capture the essence of our events and to all visitors to the events because your interest justifies our vision and efforts. Special acknowledgement is due to several organizations that contributed to the success of FORMAT Countrywide Events. The Rockefeller Foundation provided the “core” grant to FORMAT, FORMAT is intended to reward those who strive, often under difficult circumstances, to increase the value and efficiency of organic resource processing and to let them know that their efforts are genuinely appreciated.
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