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Just Natural demonstration garden

.Just Natural International CBO, Kitale Kenya was founded in 2016 with the aim to promote organic agriculture in the community and to enhance international exchange and understanding of different cultures and agricultures.

In 2016 the association rented a stand of one and a half acres on the National Agricultural Showground of Kitale. The geographical situation of the plot was highly strategical : once a year, in october, the showground hosts the annual national agricultural show. This event attracts thousands of visitors . Amidst about one hundred stands ( seed companies, banks, high technologie farming machines...) Just Natural was animating the only stand promoting organic agriculture and distributing information to small scale farmers.

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.During three years Just Natural transformed the abandonned plot into a luxurious demonstration garden. With the help of donors, Just Natural was able to invest in shadenets, a fishpond, a chickenhouse and other agricultural material.

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.In their demonstration garden Just Natural welcomed international volonteers and informed visitors about organic farming methods. Together with other farmers a network was built to commercialise and promote organic products. Today the network of associated small-scale farmers counts four producers, each of whom is cultivating a different variety of vegetables, that they sell to a fair price to the association.

Part of the production is sold to restaurants and resellers and once a week, at a lodge nearby, to a larger public. This is the beginning of the first organic market in Kitale, but also the first in all of Kenya, with the exception of Nairobi.

.In 2018 the administration changed the management of the showground. Though the rent was more than doubled, the management refused to repair the roofs of the houses where water was leaking and water supply became irregular.

Just Natural decided to leave the showground and to relocate its activities to the farm of one of its members. Though the site is less strategical (8 km away from town), the association will continue in the same way promoting organic agriculture.

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Activities

  • organise workshops

  • visit schools

  • show videos

  • cooperate with a network of other farmers

  • enhance the sensibility of consumers for healthy local food

  • teach cheesemaking and paper recycling

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A well was built, electricity was connected and in 2019 the members could finally celebrate the inauguration of the new guesthouse.

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The aim of Just Natural is to demonstrate that organic agriculture is not only healthy, but also viable !

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