Kenneth Metto is a 28-year-old husband and father of an infant child living in Ndalat, Kenya. Metto earned a certificate in sustainable agriculture from the Kipkaren Training Development Centre in 2007. He tried to earn a living through growing cabbage, but the lack of an organized market and of customers who could afford to pay for goods meant that much of what he grew would often rot in the ground.
Metto struggled to put food on the table without a steady source of income.
The Tanykina Dairy Company, another EADD cooperative, hired him as an extension worker to train farmers on topics such as feeding, ensuring milk quality, breeding practices and record keeping. In his role as a trainer, Metto has seen firsthand how the project changed the ways of most dairy farmers in his area.
The changes in Metto’s own life are as great as those he sees in the farmers with whom he works. Through his earnings as a trainer, he is not only able to feed his family but also had enough to purchase his own cow. His cow produces enough milk to nourish his growing family and to sell several liters each day to the Tanykina Dairy.
The project also brought other benefits to Kenneth’s community. For example, Tanykina now offers a Community Healthcare Plan so that farmers can access medical care at an affordable rate. Metto and his family benefited directly from improved prenatal care, with a child born in 2011 at new local clinic.
Schools in Metto’s community that used to be made of mud have been upgraded into cement structures. Classrooms that were empty once again have students as farmers have an income to pay for school fees by using the check-off system implemented at the dairy cooperative.
Profile by Jennifer Wheary, World Ark contributor
