SDG 2 · Zero Hunger
Our work
- Promote Sustainable Agriculture
Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Program
In remote dry regions and remote rain-fed regions, farming is often the main source of food, income, and employment for ultra-poor households. But a lack of skills and tools in climate adaptation, building soil health, and crop planning has cut crop yields from 3,000 kilograms per acre per year to just 200.
Through CIVICOM AID’s Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Programme, family farmers learn and practise sustainable farming directly on their own farms. They focus on three pillars.
Pillar 1: Climate Adaptation
Practices that protect harvests from drought, floods, and pests.
Pillar 2: Soil Health Improvement
Practices that rebuild soil, so farmlands hold water, stay fertile, and increase yields.
Pillar 3: Crop Planning
Practices that guide what, where, and when to plant.
What We Do
We support family farmers in remote dry regions and remote rainy regions through three activities:
Activity 1: Coaching
Trained coaches empower farmers with skills and hands-on daily practice on their farmlands.
Activity 2: Seeds
We provide crop seed types that survive drought, floods, diseases, and pests.
Activity 3: Continuous Support
Our team visits farmers regularly on their farmlands, checks progress, and offers advice.
The Challenge
Family farmers in remote dry regions and remote rain-fed regions have watched their farmland lose its fertility, vegetation cover disappearing, rain water runoff, and drought is making farming increasingly difficult. Across the regions where Civicom Aid works, cereal yields have been reported to decline from 3,000 kilograms per acre per year to just 200 kilograms per acre per year.
Many family farmers lack the skills, tools, and practical knowledge needed to apply climate adaptation tools, building soil health practices, and crop planning methods. As farming becomes more challenging and livelihoods less secure, many young people abandon farming and migrate to slum regions in search of other opportunities. This leaves older generations increasingly responsible for farming and maintaining household food supplies.
Without support, soil fertility declines, vegetation cover disappears, drought worsens, and water runoff increases. Food insecurity and poverty deepen, while children drop out of school as families struggle to meet their basic needs. These challenges threaten the livelihoods and futures of families who depend on farming for their survival.
Through Civicom Aid’s Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Programme, family farmers learn and practise sustainable farming practices directly on their own farms through hands-on practical learning in climate adaptation, building soil health, and crop planning.
Climate Adaptation Practices
Hands-on practices that change the land or farming methods
Weather is becoming harder to predict. Droughts last longer, rains fail or arrive late, and floods hit harder. For a family farmer, one bad season can mean a hungry year.
Climate adaptation practices are hands-on changes to the land and to farming methods. They help family farmers protect their harvest, their food, and their income when the weather turns against them.
Here are four practices that help.
Climate Resistant Seeds
Family farmers plant seed types that survive drought, floods, and pests. These seeds still produce a good harvest when rains fail or arrive late, protecting family food and income.
Agroforestry
Family farmers grow trees alongside crops on the same farmland. Trees give shade, hold water, and enrich the soil, protecting crops from drought and keeping the farm land productive.
Relay Cropping
Family farmers sow a second crop while the first is still growing. The field stays productive, and the second crop uses remaining moisture, which reduces risks and wasted effort.
Crop Diversification
Family farmers plant a diverse selection of crops rather than depending on one. This spreads the risk, so one poor season, pest, or disease cannot completely destroy the harvest.
Building Soil Health Practices
Hands-on practices that change the land or farming methods
Healthy soil is a farmer’s most valuable asset. It feeds crops, holds water, and keeps fields productive year after year.
Years of drought, heavy rain, and repeated planting can wear soil out. When soil weakens, harvests fall, and families lose food and income.
Building soil health practices help family farmers bring tired soil back to life. Here are four practices that help.
Minimum Tillage
Family farmers disturb the soil as little as possible when tilling and planting. This keeps soil structure intact, saves moisture, and reduces erosion and labor.
Soil Cover
Family farmers cover bare soil with crop residue, mulch, or living plants. The cover shields soil from sun and rain, keeping it moist.
Manure Application
Family farmers spread animal manure on their fields. It adds nutrients and organic matter, improves soil structure, and helps the soil hold water.
Crop Rotation
Family farmers change the crop grown in each farmland every season. This breaks pest cycles and restores nutrients, such as nitrogen from beans.
Crop Planning Practices
Hands-on practices that change the land or farming methods
Good harvests start before the first seed goes into the ground. Family farmers who plan what to grow, where to grow it, and when to plant lose less and earn more.
Crop planning practices help family farmers make these decisions with clear information. They use maps, the right seeds, and simple technology to protect their crops and their income.
Here are four practices that help.
Land Planning
Family farmers draw a map of their land, showing its natural resources, slopes, water flow, and landscape features, to guide decisions about land use and infrastructure placement.
Seeds Selection
Family farmers carefully choose seeds that are resistant to drought or floods and suit existing markets. Good choices give stronger plants, better yields, fewer crop failures, and higher income.
Farming With AI (Plantix)
Plantix helps family farmers spot weather, pest, and disease risks early, so they can act in time to protect their crops and improve their harvest every season.
Relay Cropping
Family farmers sow a second crop while the first is still growing. The fields stay productive, and the second crop uses leftover moisture and soil nutrients.
Climate and Land Mapping Monitoring Tool
Tracks and measures change over time, rather than warning in advance
Land Mapping and Monitoring (Restor)
We use Restor, a free tool, to map and monitor each farmland's biodiversity, water and tree loss, drought risk, soil loss, and green cover over time.
Climate Early Warning Tool
Gives farmers advance notice so they can act before harm is done
AI for Farming (Plantix)
Plantix helps farmers spot weather, pest, and disease risks early, so they can act in time to protect their crops and improve their harvest.
FARMERS HUBS
Farmer Hubs: The Engine of Knowledge Transfer
Each hub is led by the community it serves. Farmers plan together, work as a team, share what they know, and learn from real, lived experience. Every hub builds a spirit of learning and teamwork that carries the whole community forward.
Our Goal
By 2030, we aim to restore 20,000 hectares of degraded farmland, up from 87 hectares today. We will reach this goal by helping family farmers use low-cost, simple practices: regenerative farming, assisted natural regeneration, bund construction, crop diversification, and the Plantix app.
Kaliro Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Program, Uganda
Budini Farmers Hub
A gathering place for family farmers in Budini
The soil in Budini has grown weak. Trees are fewer each year. Harvests that once fed whole families now come up short, season after season.
Yet no farmer here stands alone. They come together to learn as one — growing food the regenerative way to bring the soil back to life, letting old roots and stumps regrow trees on their own, and using the Plantix app to catch pests, disease, and bad weather before real harm is done.
Elders pass down what years on this land have taught them. Young people bring new energy and bold ideas. Together, they are building something lasting: food on the table, and a future worth staying for.
Kwale Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Program, Kenya
Kinango Farmers Hub
A gathering place for family farmers in Kinango
The soil here is dry and tired. Each year, fewer trees stand. Harvests families once relied on now feel like a gamble, season after season.
But no one faces this dry ground alone. In the cool morning light, families come together to work the land as one — growing food the regenerative way to bring the soil back to life, letting old roots grow new trees on their own, and using the Plantix app to catch pests, disease, and bad weather before real harm is done.
Elders carry the wisdom of a lifetime on this soil. Young people bring fresh drive and new thinking. Row by row, together, they are growing something that lasts: steady food for their families, and hope for seasons still to come.
Makueni Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Program, Kenya
Kibwezi Farmers Hub
Hard seasons in Kibwezi, Makueni County, once meant harvests no one could count on. Now, rows of green stretch wide and full — proof of what steady care can grow.
Family farmers come together in hubs of 50–100 families, where they learn and farm side by side.
They grow food crops using four low-cost techniques:
- Regenerative farming to improve soil fertility
- Crop diversification to spread risk and improve nutrition
- Assisted Natural Regeneration — letting old tree stumps, roots, and leaves regrow into trees, increasing tree cover
- The Plantix app to detect crop pests, disease, and bad weather early
Together, these low-cost techniques address severe food insecurity, chronic poverty, and inequality in marginalized, remote regions.
Turkana Farmer-Managed Community Restoration Program, Kenya
Loima Farmers Hub
A gathering place for family farmers in Loima
The land in Loima stretches dry and red, shaped by drought and worn by hard years. Yet across the cracked ground, small patches of green keep pushing through, proof that life still wants to return.
Here, families gather to bring the soil back to health. They grow food the regenerative way, and they build small earth walls that hold rain in the ground for weeks, giving buried seeds the time they need to sprout on their own. The Plantix app helps them catch pests, disease, and bad weather before disaster hits.
Patch by patch, root by root, they are turning cracked red earth back into land that can feed their families once more.