Farmer of the Season – Susan Ajwang

Susan, a mother in her mid-thirties has been helping her husband with farm work ever since they got married. All her efforts to have her husband give her a small portion of their farm for a kitchen garden had been futile.

This continued until this year, when Susan was enrolled into P4P’s Farming God’s Way (FGW) an environmentally friendly and sustainable agricultural training program. As a prerequisite for getting farm inputs, the farmer must sign an agreement form which the area chief must stamp. When Susan’s husband, Julius saw this, he realized the seriousness of this and finally agreed to give a portion of the farm for a FGW plot and more space for a kitchen garden.

Susan did not disappoint. She followed the FGW teachings to the letter and three months later, Susan had a beautiful farm of maize (both FGW and conventional) in the seed stage, as well as beans (FGW) and kales. 

From the small plot of kales, she is able to sell vegetables at wholesale price every Sunday.

With the proceeds she says that she is able to take her son Wellington to Migori Hospital twice a week for physiotherapy sessions, she has food for her family and her dependency has reduced. On asking her what the husband thinks about FGW and kitchen gardening, she had this to say: “My husband is so happy that he gave me a part of the farm to practice kitchen gardening. In fact, he has promised to extend the space to allow me to plant a variety of vegetables both for consumption and for market.’’

‘’One day, my husband was passing by the farm with his friend, when they got closer, the friend asked him the farming method used and he had this to say: ‘’I do not know how all this happens but one thing I know is that this kind of farming is so good that I wish we had the whole farm on it.’’

Susan herself had this to say: “I knew nothing about P4P until a friend hairdresser once came home to do my hair. I couldn’t leave at the time because of my baby Wellington. He was so sick you could hardly hear him cry. I had moved from one hospital to the next without success. When this lady friend came, she told me to try Ogada Clinic. This move has completely changed the life of my family. Other than my twin babies’, Wellington and Jacklyne being restored, I have now learnt a sustainable farming method that is going to enable us put food on the table even long after graduating from the program. I am very happy and grateful for the work done by P4P.’’