The Kitale Event: Community Empowerment towards Sustainable Management of Resources

This was the final FORMAT event of the year, held on 25 and 26 November 2004.  It was hosted by Manor House Agricultural Centre, an institution that conducts training programs on bio-intensive agriculture.  Unlike the earlier events of 2004, this one was conducted over two days.    There were 109 invited participants who presented 36 talks and 56 exhibits. The topics covered comprised soil fertility management (33), traditional foods and plants (24), value-added processing (22), information dissemination and extension (17), resource conservation (7) and waste management (6). The winning exhibits were as follows: “Compost Making from Market Waste” by Elisha Mwangi of Kitale Waste Recycling Project. This group learned the art of composting from Simon Munywe of KEMA during the 2003 FORMAT Countrywide Event in Kitale. Peter Nyongesa of ICIPE-Mbita Point with his exhibit on “Yam Bean Production” won the second prize. The exhibit by Gladys Wabuke of Utafiti Self Help Group on “Using Farm Wastes and Polythene Bag Irrigation for Banana Production” took the third place.