For small-scale farming families throughout the Kibwezi region of southeastern Kenya, a successful harvest often determines whether a household will have enough food and income for the year ahead. Recurring droughts, increasingly unpredictable rainfall, and the broader effects of climate change have made traditional crop varieties less reliable, leaving many families more vulnerable to crop failure than in previous generations.
To help communities adapt, Maryknoll provides drought-resistant seed varieties specifically selected for arid and semi-arid growing conditions. These improved varieties of maize, beans, and green grams mature more quickly, require significantly less rainfall, and produce higher yields than the traditional seeds many farmers have relied on for decades. Several of these varieties are also richer in essential nutrients such as iron and zinc, offering a secondary benefit in the fight against childhood malnutrition.
This project reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Care for God’s Creation, working with the land in ways that build resilience rather than deplete it, alongside the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, since smallholder farmers bear the earliest and heaviest costs of a changing climate. It also carries forward Maryknoll’s charism of practical, on-the-ground response to the needs of rural communities, meeting farmers where their livelihoods actually begin, in the soil itself.
Gifts to this project provide drought-resistant seed to farming families in Kibwezi, helping them increase harvests, improve nutrition, and build lasting resilience against the recurring droughts that have long threatened their livelihoods.
