Nairobi — In the Myaribo sublocation not far from the Myaribo dispensary, where Doris Mwangi heads the Kamaneke Dairy Group, we are leaning against the fence of a pen in the group's compound.
Unusually, a pedigreed goat is in the pen: a German Alpine buck. It was acquired two years ago and Doris's group is using it to improve the quality of the area's goats. This will bring more money from milk, meat and wool.
"The price [paid for] dairy goods from goats like the Alpine is high," explains Doris.
You don't see many cows here, especially dairy cows. Raising them is difficult, says Dan Kandegwa, one of the villagers who helped organize the dairy group. "The weather is uncertain and dry. You can't keep a lot of them."
So the community has begun to upgrade the local goat herds with pedigreed animals. Goats have an easier time in this rocky, sun-baked land. "It's easier to feed goats," says Dan.
Like every community in the area, this one is poor, but its members would like their own dairy and butchery. "That is a dream," Doris acknowledges. "But I think on one of these fine days we shall reach there."
Upgrading by breeding with the Alpine means you cannot just let the offspring run loose in fields or on the side of a hill, as you can with local goats. Care, not needed by the traditional East African goat, is vital. In addition to time, you also need other inputs: veterinary drugs and feed, for example.
Dues have enabled the dairy group to provide every member with an upgraded goat. But despite the benefits, membership has dropped in this community, the members of which have almost no cash. "We started off with many members," says Doris. "Now we are just 17."
They are trying to expand the group, and one way is by offering upgraded goats to new members at lower prices. But just getting to the "intermediate level" in the upgrade process takes years, says Ifad coordinator Paul Wangura. "They started at a very low level. It may take three years or more."
Non-members are charged 50 shillings whenever they bring an upgraded goat in for service. Kamaneke Dairy Group members don't pay that, but dues enabling participation in monthly meetings are 150 shillings for each session.
Dan Kandegwa explains how the group came together. As he speaks, it emerges that a dispensary nearby has an unexpected additional role—a community centre.
Dan says that in the beginning, CKDAP officers discussed with a small group in the community—"just three or four of us"—ideas of "upgrading our living." The CKDAP arranged visits to a number of other projects experimenting with upgrading goats. "And we thought that… was a very good idea."
Upgrading Local Bees
The idea of upgrading local bees began to be discussed as an easier, more immediate way of raising money.
Traditional beehives—while inexpensive and easy to make from a hollow log or piece of bark sealed at the ends with raffia—are usually destroyed during the harvesting of honey. And the quality and quantity of the honey they produce is uncertain.
So the group began to buy new hives, made from local wood, re-usable and constructed with precision to ensure they provide the correct space for bees.
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But hives aren't cheap either—while they are not as expensive as an Alpine goat, says Dan, "Nobody could afford even one… Just one cost 2,500 shillings (about U.S. $40) and that's a lot of money! We had to form a group, and that's when Ifad came in and gave us a hand."
It is almost startling how simple the community's future goals and ambitions are. Every member of the group owns one bee hive; they'd like to increase the number to five each. They'd like a water storage tank; construction of a water pipe is underway. Meeting dues are now going into a savings pot for it and, says Dan, "We are expecting it at any time."
And for all the uncertainty, there is nonetheless a definite "bottom line" that is already profitable, according to Ifad's Paul Wangura: "They are now beginning to decide for themselves what to do for their own development."
