Starting a project from scratch in extreme circumstances, with Jane Wegesa Fraser

·1 hr 24 min·5 clips

Men in West Pokot refused to let women have dairy goats, fearing it would make them 'proud and rude,' exposing a core challenge to Jane's work.

The episode begins with host Oliver Gauthier and guest co-host Alex Stinson framing a new series exploring how conventional regenerative agriculture wisdom from the Global North often fails in resource-constrained parts of the world. Alex shares his experience in Uruguay, where free resources like wood chips are exported, not locally abundant. They introduce the episode's guest, Jane Wegesa Fraser, who is working in West Pokot County, Kenya. Jane describes the landscape as severely degraded due to overgrazing by pastoralist communities who measure wealth in livestock numbers. Her initial approach of telling people to reduce cattle failed, so she pivoted to creating demonstration sites. The first project was a plant nursery at a local school, which provided food and a training hub. They partnered with World Vision to bring potable water to the community. Jane then engaged women, training them in water-harvesting techniques like half-moon gardens and swales, leading to abundant kitchen gardens and a new local market. A beekeeping project for men helped conserve trees. Jane faced significant patriarchal barriers, including men refusing projects for women fearing it would make them less obedient. She worked as a volunteer, mobilizing youth and securing small donations to start projects with minimal resources. The conversation covers challenges like lack of access to topographic maps, backward government agricultural extension services, and Kenya's laws against seed sharing. Jane's advice is to start small with whatever you have to demonstrate commitment. She aims to replicate her model in other arid regions of Kenya to empower women and shift mindsets towards regenerative livelihoods.

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