A second greenhouse also needs to be built to that purpose. Together with students from JOOUST the assignment is to develop course material for greenhouse farming for small scale farmers, including aspects of group dynamics, bookkeeping, marketing chain management and overall business plan. The business plan should achieve two objectives at once. The greenhouses should function as a source of extra income for funding of the school costs for the students that manage and operate the greenhouse. At the same time the greenhouses should function as a learning station for farmer groups in the neighborhood. To that end also course material for greenhouse farming needs to be developed. Depending on the progress made the course can be experimented and tested with the target group. This project is carried out under the ambience of University Outreach Program, which seeks to give service to the community, in conjunction with the national and county governments. For this reason officers from these two levels of governments are expected to work hand in hand with the students in order to harness the cooperation of the three parties.
Kenya: Developing a course on greenhouse farming for smallholder farmers
At Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, in Bondo - Kenya, experiments and research have been conducted on the improvement of technology and capacity of smallholder farmers in the surroundings. A greenhouse has been built and it should now function as a training center for students from the University and groups of farmers in the neighborhood.