One Beekeeper Many Hives Kenya

The BoP In Pictures: One Beekeeper, Many Hives in Kenya







The BoP In Pictures: One Beekeeper, Many Hives in Kenya
This image and post are part of an occasional series of photo essays The BoP Project is making available to NextBillion readers.

Joyce Kavinya Motunga, Kitui district, Kenya, who lives with many of her five children and four grandchildren in a small mud and brick hut in a village on the outskirts of Kitui district, Western Kenya. She’s been beekeeping for more than 10 years and is just one of Honey Care Africa’s 15,000 bee farmers in East Africa, a Kenyan based social enterprise that enables rural farmers to start small, income generating bee farms, which Honey Care Africa uses as its sole supply chain.

A hot, dry, and drought-prone district of Kenya, Kitui is an ideal location for bee farming. Joyce doesn’t need to depend on the rain, purchase yearly inputs, or do much of anything to ensure a steady steam of income. With just a half an hour of effort each week, Joyce’s five bee hives earn hear nearly 10,000 Kenyan Shillings (around $120 USD) per year, nearly all of which goes to her children’s school fees. In 2005, Joyce earned the title “Beekeeper of the Year”, and has since been running small workshops, training sessions, and her own extension network helping other women in her area set up bee farms.

Over the past ten years, Honey Care Africa has been providing apiarists like Joyce, who own little land and generate little income, with opportunities that have the potential to greatly increase their income. Honey Care Africa partners with NGO’s to get its “Business in a Beehive” package to farmers. The organization provides farmers a guaranteed price and market for the honey produced. More remarkably, they have been doing it profitably, and you can find their honey- whether you fancy mint, cinnamon, ginger, or just pure honey- at supermarkets across the region.

As posted: http://nextbillion.net/the-beekeeper-joyce-kavinya-motunga/

Kenaf Root System Pot Grown Earth Grown

Kenaf Test Plants Tap Root Comparison images

Container Grown and Earth Grown with side by side
comparisons.

Kenaf Test Plants Tap Root Comparison image

Container Grown and Earth Grown side by side

MOhemp has shared information on why the Kenaf Tap Root system can be a key to improving the biodiversity of the soil at

https://mohempkenya.blogspot.com/2016/11/soil-treatment-taproot-kenaf-plant.html

Soil Treatment TapRoot Kenaf Plant

Treating the Soil and Growing Biomass Energy Part 1

-so easy a kid can do it!

Raising and harvesting Kenaf aka-Indian Hemp; is so easy even a child can do it! The kids helped with the Test plants and were used in as Props to document the stages of growth of the Kenaf Test Plants from planting to harvest.

I also included mathematical figures of how the Kenaf plants tap-root system would aid in adding biodiversity to the soil by creating what I call: biodiversity reserve holding tank for the soil that lessens the water runoff scenarios after rain storms. Which is like having 150- 4 person hot tubs dispersed over an acre of land.

Kenaf Test Plant Tap Root System

Nov 21-2016

Lets now use the root system to demonstrate how the tap root system will assist in conditioning and adding biodiversity to the soil.

When Kenaf is planted for fiber it is generally sown at: "populations of 185,000 to 370,000 plants/ha (75,000 to 150,000 plants/acre) -Purdue University"

• 100,000 amount of plants per acre
• Volume of the Root 
  V
  =
  π

  r

  2

  h

  3
   6 inch long, 1 inch base= 56.55 cu in
• 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft / 100,000 plants = 2.34 plants per sq ft of Kenaf roots breaking up a hard pan clay type soil.

• 2.34 roots X 56.66= 132.58 cu in water pockets per square foot spread over an acre is: 5,666,000 cu in of water pockets. 

•  Which is about eight-and-a-half times as big as a Concrete Mixer Truck or its like having 150- 4 person hot tubs holding water on an acre of land.

Update Volume Estimates 3- Kenaf Plant Root System Measurements





• {I will weight the roots this week} 100,000 Total roots X weight of root = ____weight of root-mass in the soil.

This important for a few reasons:

• As the roots deteriorates it will add nutrients to the soil; while at the same time-  
• creating a water pocket or a biodiversity reserve holding tank for the soil that lessens the water runoff scenarios after rain storms.

Most Importantly, This

  "Process cycles and returns the carbon  from the air we breathe back into the Earth- 

eliminating the effects of climate change"

 

Raising and Harvesting Kenaf 

-so easy even a child can do it.  

one-half inch tall Kenaf Sprouts

July 14-2016 1/2 in Sprouts

Aug 7-2016

 One Month Plant Growth 40 inches Tall

August 20-2016 

 50 inches tall at 6 weeks

August 26-2016

Ferocious Guard Dogs and the Little Green Thumb

Sep 9-2016

 Look at how fast they grow! 

Oct 8-2016

Even on a milk crate I can't reach the top... 

Oct 8-2016

...neither can I!

great for exploring

Oct 31-2016 #Peace

One night a rain storm broke a stalk

Nov 3-2016

This Kenaf plant become the 

Little Green Thumb's 1st Kenaf Harvest

Love the Determination

Growing Kenaf to condition the soil is so easy even a kid can do it!

Holistic Management: Plants are a bridge that connect atmospheric CO2 wi...

You can think of plants as the sort of bridge that connects atmospheric CO2 to soil carbon...When soils are managed carefully, when organic matter is returned to the soils, when runoff is prevented, and erosion is prevented, soils can be managed to dramatically increase the amount of carbon they contain. Recent estimates are that we could be sequestering in soils worldwide something on the order of one to two billion tons per year of carbon with the best possible management techniques. That is a significant fraction of the approximately ten billion tons that were releasing to the atmosphere.

Sustainable Plastic from Kenaf

Sustainable Farming Videos

3 Sustainable Farming Videos

Number 1: 100,000 Beating Hearts

One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts from Peter Byck on Vimeo.
Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures, tells us his evolution from industrial to regenerative farmer.

Number 2: Soil Carbon Cowboys

SOIL CARBON COWBOYS from Peter Byck on Vimeo.
Meet Allen Williams, Gabe Brown and Neil Dennis - heroes and innovators! These ranchers now know how to regenerate their soils while making their animals healthier and their operations more profitable. They are turning ON their soils, enabling rainwater to sink into the earth rather than run off. And these turned ON soils retain that water, so the ranches are much more resilient in drought. It's an amazing story that has just begun.

Number 3: Soil Carbon Curious

Soil Carbon Curious from Peter Byck on Vimeo.

Adaptive Multi-Paddock grazing (AMP grazing) is regenerating soils around the world, producing healthy grass-finished beef. But the science on AMP grazing is sparse, to say the least. Now, a group of leading soil, rangeland, bug and social scientists are setting out to fill the science gap. Led by Dr. Richard Teague of Texas A&M, and convened by filmmaker Peter Byck of Arizona State University, the ASU•Soil Carbon Nation Whole Systems Science Team is positioned to do large scale science that's never been done before.

Option of Raising Beef on Cover Crops