{"id":1620,"date":"2016-07-12T12:16:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T04:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2017-04-22T08:53:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T00:53:15","slug":"farmers-get-solar-technology-in-remote-corner-of-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/farmers-get-solar-technology-in-remote-corner-of-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers get solar technology in remote corner of Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>New irrigation kit saves water and boosts crops for women in Mandera.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Women in a remote corner of Kenya are using solar technology to revolutionize the way they farm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The town of Mandera, on the north-eastern border with Somalia and Ethiopia, is one of the most hard-to-reach parts of the country, with 88% of people living below the poverty line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But a three-year programme by Islamic Relief is supporting small-scale farmers \u2013 mainly women \u2013 to secure new irrigation kits, which save water and boost crop yields.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jama Hanshi, Islamic Relief\u2019s regional desk co-ordinator in Kenya, said: \u201cThe road to Mandera is unpaved and it takes two to three days to get there by road from Nairobi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.islamic-relief.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Kenya-supply-Woman-farmer-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.islamic-relief.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Kenya-supply-Woman-farmer-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Kenya supply Woman farmer 1\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe farmers there have been relying on diesel-generated water pumps which are expensive and use up most of their savings, but this project is replacing those pumps with solar-powered irrigation systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe amazing thing about this drip irrigation kit is that it uses a minimal amount of water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cIn an area where water is scarce and where people have been badly affected by drought, being able to get the maximum output from the water available is crucial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Funded by USAID, over the next three years the $500,000 (\u00a3390,000) scheme will support 3,000 farmers directly, benefiting a further 18,000 people indirectly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The solar kit pumps water from boreholes, rivers or lakes into a storage tank before using a drip irrigation system at optimum times in the evening and early morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A Nairobi-based company designed the equipment to make water savings of up to 80%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Islamic Relief is encouraging the farmers to team up, forming Group Loans and Saving Associations (GLSAs) where they can pool their resources and buy the kit collectively.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New irrigation kit saves water and boosts crops for women in Mandera. Women in a remote corner of Kenya are using solar technology to revolutionize the way they farm. The town of Mandera, on the north-eastern border with Somalia and Ethiopia, is one of the most hard-to-reach parts of the country, with 88% of people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worldwide","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1622,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/1622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islamic-relief.org.my\/sandbox_www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}