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Nuru International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty in remote, rural areas. Learn all about our work in Kenya and Ethiopia here on our blog.
The Agriculture Program mandate is to create a sustainable economic base for chronic hunger communities. Even amidst the success of thousands of Nuru farmers bringing in a bumper maize crop for the 2012 long rains season, I find myself researching other program interventions to create more impact in the lives of farmers in extreme poverty. …Continue Reading
Nuru Agriculture Reflects on Successes and Challenges of the Long Rain Season
Amy Sherwood
Across Kuria West, farmers are attending our base education events, joining Nuru and gearing up for the 2013 long rains planting season. At the Regional Training Center (the head quarters for Nuru in Kuria), the staff of Nuru Agriculture is busy processing information about new farmers, ordering and organizing inputs for distribution, and strategizing about …Continue Reading
Nuru Kenya Agriculture Begins Base Education in Seven New Sublocations
Amy Sherwood
Although the Nuru Kenya Agriculture Program is busy wrapping up with the 2012 maize harvest & collecting loan payments from current Nuru farmers, the past few weeks have also been filled with anticipation of the year to come. This September, Nuru Kenya Agriculture is beginning to sign-up farmers in seven new sublocations (the geographical unit …Continue Reading
The shambas (farms) of Kuria West seem deceptively quiet as the agriculture team and I conduct our fieldwork this week. The fields that just a few weeks ago were full of row upon row of tall, green maize are now barren or occupied by cattle. Along with the maize, the once ubiquitous farmers also seem …Continue Reading
My Intro to Kuria: Utilizing Local Knowledge to Create Poverty Alleviation Solutions When I first accepted the Agriculture Fellow position with Nuru, I was a bit nervous to take over the reigns of such a large and impactful program. I grew more and more confident during transition as I began acquiring knowledge from the outgoing …Continue Reading
Creating Organization Structure for Sustainable Program Implementation
Matt Lineal
Nuru International focuses on developing the key leadership skills and critical thinking capacity of its leaders to build organizational sustainability. The ability of Nuru Kenya to support and reinvent itself is fundamental to adapt and scale operations. The challenge is to remain consistent, true, and focused on the program goal in each area. For agriculture, …Continue Reading
During all of December and January, Nuru Agriculture is distributing loans of agriculture inputs (fertilizer and seed) for maize production to approximately 3,000 smallholder farmers in Kuria, Kenya. Nuru Agriculture provides agricultural loans as one critical element of its complete farmer package, which includes technical trainings, organization of farmers into small work groups, and agriculture …Continue Reading
Modern Cropping Techniques for Smallholder Agriculture Development
Matt Lineal
Nuru’s Agriculture Program provisions small loans of agricultural inputs (fertilizers and seed) to farmers and trains farmers to generate a permanent and significant increase in crop yields. The beginning of the long rains season (December to July) marks the busiest time for the agriculture program and for millions of Kenyan farmers who are investing in …Continue Reading
From Life Skills to Technical Abilities: Empowerment Through Farmer Training
Matt Lineal
Nuru’s agriculture program mobilizes and trains thousands of farmers every year in October and November in anticipation of the long rains maize harvest season (January to July). The agriculture program issues loans of agricultural inputs (maize seeds and fertilizers) and trains farmers to use them. Nuru equips extremely poor smallholder agriculturalists with the knowledge and tools to …Continue Reading
Over the coming months Nuru’s Agriculture Program will evolve in exciting ways to aid the overall mission of increasing crop yields in a sustainable and scalable way. Nuru International employs local Kenyan staff members to manage the agriculture program and develops their capacity in conjunction with an expatriate staffer (Agriculture Program Manager / Nuru International …Continue Reading