Beatrice Kirundu: Pushing for Economic Empowerment Through Farming 

If you were to ask Beatrice Kirundu what drives her, the likely answer would be economic empowerment. This farmer by profession is the accomplished chairlady of Jitahidi Farmers Women Group. This is a 28-strong farming group with a mandate to improve the self-reliance of small-scale farmers across Kenya.  

Despite the name, the group does not only cater to women and actually began in 1998 as a table banking group or chama. Members would each contribute a fixed amount and the pooled money would go to one group member at a time. But members had difficulties paying their contributions, so Beatrice wanted to explore a new source of income. Growing up, Beatrice witnessed first-hand the financial and food security that having a farm offered her mother, and later, her mother-in-law. She realised that through farming, the group could use the profits from the harvest to pay themselves. When 1999 came around, Jitahidi began a new journey as a farming group with Beatrice at the helm.  

Learning and Growing 

Facing a new venture, Beatrice was eager to learn as much as possible about agriculture. She was adamant about ensuring that her group gained recognition from parties who could assist them with discovering much-needed agricultural skills and knowledge. She made sure of this by taking opportunities to attend farming exhibitions.  

As a result, in the same year, Biotechnology Trust Africa (BTA) gave the group local sweet potato vines that were developed to have the traits requested by Jitahidi. Beatrice and her group wanted these sweet potatoes as they were tasty, nutritional, easy to grow and pest resistant. Beatrice’s first crop thrived and even produced a surplus. She also realised she could turn these excess sweet potatoes into crisps and even cake. 

More Than Farming 

1999 continued to be a fruitful year. Beatrice’s hard work preceded her once more and she was approached by KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) who provided training to her and her team to push her farming venture even further. She encountered modern farming methods such as intercropping where different crops are planted alongside each other. She also began to plant in beds to avoid stepping on viable plants while walking around the farm. With the importance of crop diversity in mind, she added bananas to her repertoire in 2003.  

Having been exposed to value addition for sweet bananas, Beatrice was keen on extending this to bananas. In 2017, after more than a decade of farming practice, she tried her hand at value addition for bananas. At the time, she would dry the bananas on tables inside homes. 

Despite this unideal set-up, Beatrice’s resolve was hardened because she knew that these crops would be of great value to her community, some of whom needed economically friendly ways of staving off hunger. 

Empowering a Community 

In 2021, Beatrice identified key opportunities for scaling up her use of bananas. She spearheaded the implementation of value-addition machinery that saw her make banana flour and sugar using a solar dryer and miller. The love for community that first led her to start Jitahidi led her once more to help people beat hunger. She wanted to show her community that by growing bananas, they could ensure they never went without food. Instead of buying flour and sugar from stores, banana flour could make porridge and chapatis. Sweet bananas could also be turned into sugar to put in porridge and other beverages.  

On top of bananas, Beatrice is a champion of indigenous vegetables from her home of Vihiga. This is all part of her mission to better the lifestyles of people in her community by promoting better health and affordable food solutions. 

We are in awe of Beatrice Kirundu – a farmer who does her part to build a sustainable and healthy future for her community. Her story exemplifies the determination that farmers have and the key role they play in bettering our quality of life. 

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