Anglican Development Services South Rift (ADSSR) is the development arm of the Anglican Church of Kenya Diocese of Kericho that covers Narok, Kericho and Bomet counties. The three counties are inhabited by Maasai (Narok) and Kalenjins/Kipsigis (Bomet and Kericho) with their major towns being cosmopolitan.

About Anglican Development Services South Rift

Anglican Development Services South Rift (ADSSR) is the development arm of the Anglican Church of Kenya Diocese of Kericho that covers Narok, Kericho and Bomet counties. The three counties are inhabited by Maasai (Narok) and Kalenjins/Kipsigis (Bomet and Kericho) with their major towns being cosmopolitan.

Anglican Development Services South Rift received KES.6,813,000 to implement a 2-year project titled ‘Scaling up pasture production and rehabilitation of degraded range lands through development of community based range grass seed bulking of KALRO identified grass species in Narok County’. The action involved establishing drought resistant range grasses to rehabilitate degraded range lands as well as boosting agribusiness through sale of pasture, reaching 900 farmers in Mosiro, Suswa and Lolgorian wards in Narok County.

This was the first time ADSSR introduced pasture grass production to a pastoral community that traditionally practiced a nomadic lifestyle, relying on natural pastures in communal grazing lands. Such a lifestyle was not sustainable following increased population and demand for cultivation land as well as changing climatic conditions. The farmers have fenced what were formerly open fields for farming, drastically reducing the grazing fields. As a consequence, this increased pressure on the remaining grazing fields resulting in degradation.

After studying this trend of events and the negative impact on the pastoral community in Narok County, ADSSR introduced the Maasai Community to pasture production and rehabilitation of rangelands. At first, the farmers were not enthusiastic to participate in the project owing to inadequate knowledge on establishing pasture grass and lack of access to grass seeds. Nevertheless, ADSSR began with a small number of early adopters of technology to create awareness and interest among follower farmers.

As a community development organization, ADSSR established demonstration plots (with 4 varieties), close to the farmers, to serve as farmer field schools. Farmers assemble at the demonstration plots to learn step-by-step processes of production of pasture and post-harvest activities like packaging and modern storage. The demonstration farms are managed by ADSSR in collaboration with lead farmers. After training, individual farmers select a grass variety of their choice to produce. The aim of the model was to foster learning and influence large number of farmers to produce tradeable volumes of pasture grass. The grass will then be bulked at collection/aggregation centers that the organization plans to establish. This will enable collective marketing of hay and seeds through contracts with buyers.

Impact of grass pasture in Narok County

The pasture project has so far been adopted by more than 200 farmers. Despite the challenges of depressed rainfall, the farmers harvested 2284 bales and 1048 kg of seeds worth KES.980,800. They have established over 500 acres under pasture with an estimated production of 274,860 bales worth KES 41,229,000. The impact of the project to the Maasai Community is highlighted in the following photo gallery:

Figure 2 One of the early adopters of grass pasture production in Narok County  Chief Seitai posing for a photo in his hay store worth 100,000/-. Courtesy of ADSSR

Figure 3 Field day for grass pasture farmers in Narok with Mr. Lemeta, Livestock extension officer Transmara East and West. Courtesy of ADSSR