A section of refugees in the new Kalobeyei camp in Turkana County have embarked on crop growing using sunken-bed technology.

This involves using waste water from domestic use to irrigate crops on small pieces of land near their shelter homes.

Over the years, refugees in Kenya have been mainly relying on donor support to finance their livelihood.

However, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization are seeking to change this by initiating a sunken bed gardens technology to help refugees produce food.

This entails farming on small gardens, located behind refugees’ shelters that are supported by irrigation using waste water from their homes.

Augustine Murenzi farms watermelons on his small kitchen garden that he sells to fellow refugees.

He says the food ration he receives from the UNHCR cannot sustain his family and uses proceeds from his kitchen garden to supplement the ration.

Donor funding has reduced considerably since civil wars broke out in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, hence the need for alternatives to support the refugees.

The Food and Agriculture Organization that has been training refugees on different modern farming technologies that require minimal water plans to expand the programme to locals.

SOURCE: kbc.co.ke