Flourishing Livelihoods

Africa Now’s project ‘Encouraging smallholder involvement in export floriculture’ provides the perfect example of how enterprise alleviates poverty, as debated on the recent live web blog on the Guardian website, ‘Enterprise as a route out of poverty’.

Funding for the Kenyan based project has come to an end; however the benefits of this project continue. Africa Now aim’s to develop long term sustainable projects that provide low income households with a ‘hand up’ rather then a ‘hand out’ towards their future.

The smallholder flower project has demonstrated just this through the establishment of smallholder and exporter partnerships and establishing working relationships that increase the household income for smallholders and their families.

The project has realized significant milestones towards achieving its objectives and has supported small-scale producers to provide for themselves for years to come through market linkage and sustainable enterprise.

Sales from flowers have been implausible with Jan 09 – Jun 09 seeing 176,730 stems sold at Ksh 609,400, while July 09 – Dec 09 saw 157,986 stems sold at Ksh 700,784. The standard of living amongst project members and their families has improved incredibly as a result of increased household incomes. Paul Wathiru, from Kirenga Flower Growers Group, is now earning Ksh 25,000 per month from slightly less than an eighth of an acre which has enabled him to construct a permanent house for his family.

It is evident that given the right assistance, farmers in Kenya and other African regions can utilise their untapped potential and achieve a higher standard of living, enabling them to build a brighter future for their families.

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