2012 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 148-157
Inaccessibility of rural areas in Kenya makes it difficult for smallholder farmers to deliver their produce to markets. A new approach to provide rural access roads was introduced by Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture under the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment Project (SHEP). This involved technology transfer to teach the do-nou method (a Japanese term for soil bags) to farmer groups. This technology is labor-intensive, but can be applied to spot improvement of roads using only locally available materials, such as used gunny bags (e.g., woven sacks with plastic fiber) and sandy or granular material. Here, we discuss the sustainability of this method. After SHEP was complete, 24% of the groups trained by SHEP staff implemented do-nou versus 13% of indirect groups (who were trained by SHEP trainees). We examined the factors that contributed to implementation of the do-nou method and developed recommendations on how to expand the method to more groups and thereby improve rural access roads. The following factors were key: (1) the group should be located closer than 8 km from a paved road, and the length of the road section to be maintained should be less than 90 m; (2) the terrain and soil type should require little engineering input; (3) materials and transportation must be locally available; (4) stakeholders must become involved; and (5) groups must be empowered and have strong leadership. Based on these findings, we recommend that training be conducted at the farmer group sites, that it should account for feasibility based on terrain and soil type, that farmer groups and their leaders should be empowered to approach stakeholders, and that communities should mobilize themselves to conduct road maintenance. It is also important to sensitize stakeholders about the willingness and ability of the farmers to conduct road maintenance using the do-nou method so that the stakeholders will provide assistance for the road work.
