Our farmers have been planting cowpeas (referred to by its local name “kunde”) as part of the KOMAZA package since 2008. Distribution of cowpea seeds was incorporated into the Farmer MOU, with KOMAZA agreeing to give farmers 0.75 kilograms of seed for the first three seasons of a his or her participation in the program. Upon harvesting, farmers are asked to return 3 kilograms of seed to KOMAZA to cover logistical costs, as we are aiming to make KOMAZA operations financially self-sustaining. Any excess harvest can be kept for consumption by the family or sale at the local market. After three seasons of tree growth (or less), often the canopy is too thick to allow for intercropping of cowpea between the eucalyptus trees.

Cowpea was selected for distribution to KOMAZA farmers for five reasons:

1. Intercropping a short-term crop with trees will encourage the farmer to visit and tend to the shamba (especially weeding)
2. KOMAZA farmers are already familiar with kunde, meaning the sensitization and adaptation of the crop’s production will require minimal effort
3. Consumption of kunde products (seeds and leaves) is nutritional and can offset household expenditures on food
4. Surplus kunde can be sold for supplementary short-term income
5. Cowpea is a nitrogen-fixing crop that improves soil nutrients

During the short rains 2011 (October), cowpea seed was distributed to 1811 KOMAZA farmers. The contractually-obligated 0.75 kilograms were given to farmers who had paid the nominal program fee; some farmers received seeds on credit with returned yields to be used in lieu of cash payment. A handful of farmers remained with unplanted seeds from last season, while others requested additional seed (with increased yield returns to KOMAZA) to plant on unused land.

We established 19 collection points in 13 locations, where post-harvesting processing, quality control and proper storage techniques will be managed by our Field Extension Network. This large-scale seed collection was a prime opportunity for KOMAZA to develop processes and systems to optimize a farm-to-market agricultural value chain. Elements of the systems development include: technical trainings on post-harvest handling to ensure high quality output; data collection tools to increase accountability and mitigate quality control challenges; M&E tools for more efficient and timely field-to-office information flow; bulking and transportation logistics for semi-perishable agricultural product; sourcing buyers and optimizing timing of product inflow to the market.

As we wrap-up the collection process, it is clear that the program was a success for a multitude of reasons. Most importantly, the Field Extension Network did an excellent job working closely with our farmers to return 3576 kilograms of high-quality seed to KOMAZA. The seed has been approved by a wholesale buyer in Nairobi, as well as deemed salable by local buyers on the coast.  Our Kunde Progress Tracker tool was utilized efficiently by the Field Managers, providing weekly updates on the progress of the collection at the farmer and collection point levels. We also learned valuable lessons in planning, seed distribution policy and timing, and farmer buy-in for quality assurance.  We look forward to applying the successes and learning points of the Short Rains 2011 Kunde Collection to future Cowpea Program operations.

KOMAZA received exciting news in February 2012 that we have been selected as one of three finalists for the Barry and Marie Lipman Family Prize, an annual award administered by the University of Pennsylvania, which recognizes the work of organizations devoted to positive social impact and creating sustainable solutions to significant global challenges. The Prize Committee will select as the overall winner, an organization that celebrates leadership and innovation in the social sector with an emphasis on the impact and transferability of their practices. In addition to a $100,000 cash prize for the winner, all three finalists will participate in a year-long collaborative engagement with the University, which will include access to executive education and consulting, support from student projects, inclusion in faculty research and participation in peer learning events. The winner of the award will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Wharton Business School in April 2012.

KOMAZA was one of nearly 300 applicants to the award in September 2011 and was taken through to the second phase of the selection process in December 2011. After two months of intensive research, data collection and evaluation by a committee of faculty, students and staff spanning the University, we learnt that we had been selected as a finalist. Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome a team of six, including graduate and undergraduate students and staff members, to visit our operations in Kenya, meet members of our field staff and farmers, and see the impact KOMAZA is having in our areas of operation.

Throughout their morning in the field and afternoon in the office, the team showed they had done their homework and asked a lot of provocative questions about KOMAZA, from the demographics of our field extension team and the challenges of day-to-day communications, to our forward-looking plans for long-term sustainability and impact. The team will be taking their findings (including video footage) back to the Lipman Prize Committee to present KOMAZA’s story.

Students and staff from the University of Pennsylvania visiting a KOMAZA tree farm with members of our field staff in Ganze

We are extremely grateful to the Lipman Family and the University of Pennsylvania for their interest in KOMAZA and look forward to working together to build knowledge, share experiences and encourage innovation within the social sector.

We are delighted to announce that KOMAZA’s founder and CEO, Tevis Howard, has been recognised for his achievements as a social entrepreneur by being selected as an Ashoka Fellow.

Ashoka is the largest association of social entrepreneurs in the world, having elected its first Fellows in India in 1981, and has since grown to over 2,000 Fellows in over 60 countries across the globe. Ashoka Fellows are recognised for their roles in developing innovative solutions to social problems and for having the potential to change societal patterns worldwide. They are selected on the basis of demonstrating unrivalled commitment to bold new ideas, proving that compassion, creativity, and collaboration are tremendous forces for change.

Tevis was put through a rigorous evaluation process, including a series of in-depth interviews, a judging panel, and a final executive board vote to establish his suitability for this prestigious award, based on his personal credentials and the impact of KOMAZA’s work in rural Kenya. Tevis and KOMAZA will now have direct access to the wider Ashoka network of Fellows, providing opportunities to exchange ideas and develop creative solutions with other award winners. As an Ashoka Fellow, Tevis will also receive a stipend to help cover the cost of the time he dedicates to leading our organisation.

This is an important and exciting achievement for Tevis and KOMAZA, and we are thrilled that his efforts have been recognised by such a visionary organisation.

As mentioned in a previous post, KOMAZA is a young organisation comprised mostly of generalists, who often seek partnerships with specialists to help us achieve the highest quality of work.  We have worked closely with volunteers from Statistics Without Borders over the past year, and with them have made a big push to improve our monitoring and evaluation capacity.  With their help we have greatly improved our ability to collect and analyze data on our social impact, tree growth, tree mortality and a variety of other important indicators.  In this post, I would like to recognize and thank Statistics Without Borders for the assistance they have given KOMAZA.

Statistics Without Borders  is “an apolitical organization under the auspices of the American Statistical Association, comprised entirely of volunteers, that provides pro bono statistical consulting and assistance to organizations and government agencies in support of these organizations’ not-for-profit efforts to deal with international health issues (broadly defined)”. One of their largest recent projects is in Haiti,  where they are helping collect data to assess the impact of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The organization is involved in a large number of projects, including two with KOMAZA.

The first project that we teamed with Statistics Without Borders on was the social impact baseline. Their experts provided KOMAZA with guidance through all stages of this project, from training guidelines for enumerators, to using SPSS and STATA software to analse baseline data. They also provided timely and detailed responses to questions about data entry and validation, and constructive advice on the household questionnaire.

This input from experts gives KOMAZA greater confidence in our numbers, and will allow us to accurately measure our impact. As Kevin Starr, Managing Director of the Mulago Foundation and friend of KOMAZA, said in a 2008 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “If an intervention can’t demonstrate real impact, it shouldn’t be scaled up. We don’t invest in organizations that don’t measure impact: they’re flying blind and we would be too.”

The second project that Statistics without Borders has helped us with is collecting data on the growth of KOMAZA trees. There are two reasons we need to know how well our trees are growing. The first is forward looking: when will we be able to harvest our trees as building poles? This information will help us plan the optimal harvest time. The other is backwards looking: what do current patterns of tree growth tell us about the importance of various inputs (such as rainfall at planting time, number of farmers per field staff member)? This information helps us improve our operations to maximise tree growth.

John Hall from Statistics Without Borders helped KOMAZA develop a robust system for collecting tree growth data, and I particularly appreciated John’s patience and flexibility in designing operationally achievable methods to improve our data quality.

Overall, I have been very impressed with the volunteers from Statistics Without Borders. Their dedicated staff use their years of hands-on statistical experience to help organizations like KOMAZA collect high quality data and conduct high quality analysis. In our case, this data will help to show the impact of our intervention, as once farmers receive income from tree harvests the baseline will allow us to accurately measure the improvement of their living conditions over time.  Already, tree growth analysis has helped inform our operations in a number of ways.

Ultimately, Statistics Without Borders has given us confidence in our numbers, and those numbers are critical in helping us improve the way we work with smallholder farmers in rural Kenyan drylands. We encourage other organisations to make use of the high quality service provided by Statistics Without Borders, and look forward to working with their volunteers again in the future!