Community leaders from Loita and Naroosura ward in Narok South Sub County have benefited from an environmental training sponsored by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and World Vision.
Speaking during the training held in a Narok Hotel, an environmental expert at Maasai Mara University Festus Barchok challenged the community leaders to lead their communities in planting trees to conserve and improve the environment.
Barchok said trees have multiple benefits to the environment and asked people to take advantage of the ongoing rains to plant trees on their individual farms.
The leaders, who included youth, religious leaders, and village elders were also urged to embrace Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) where they will be able to plant drought-resilient crops and carry out agricultural practices that seeks to protect the environment and reduce destruction.
Lydia Mashori, a farm expert at Ewaso Ngiro South Development Authority (ENSDA) urged the community leaders to educate their communities on the importance of keeping fewer livestock as one of the CSA practices.
She warned that the old practice of keeping large herds of livestock leads to overgrazing which has over time proven to be hazardous to the environment as it leads to desertification.
Jared Otieno, Natural Resource Management officer at World Vision said the training was meant to help the communities that reside in Naroosura and Loita ward to restore forest in that area and conserve their environment.
Otieno also challenged the community leaders to come up with a strategic plan that will see the restoration of the forest.
Moses Naeku, one of the community leaders from Naroosura said that the training has been of great impact to the trainees as they will be able to train their respective communities on the importance of afforestation.
Naeku urged farmers to embrace organic farming like crop rotation and the use of manure to protect the environment.
By Ann Salaton and Amos Maine
