News

Wakulima USA is a farming and food business cooperative based in Kent that supports the East African immigrant and refugee community by providing access to farming opportunities, mental health services, youth programs, and more to promote wellness and shared prosperity for all.

In collaboration with the International Rescue Committee in Seattle, Wakulima USA has received support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand their community involvement through a new three-year-long initiative that supports marginalized new and beginning farmers.

This project focuses on increasing farmland access and implementing climate-smart agronomic practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while strengthening resilience to environmental changes. This project also focuses heavily on improving production skills and facilities, establishing and expanding market connections, and providing a support system for immigrant and refugee farmers.

Barriers to farming including inequitable farm access, lack of infrastructure and facilities, and difficulties with market access are all compounded by the legacies of the exclusion of BIPOC farmers from participating in the agricultural sector.

“The biggest barrier is trying to acquire land, and we have experienced blockages,” said Executive Director Venessa Runo. “We’d find a piece of land that we think is suitable but the people selling are not even comfortable selling to us.”

For immigrant and refugee farmers in particular, discriminatory practices and limited access to resources to maintain a farming operation are especially hindering. Wakulima USA hopes to create a way forward toward rectifying past oppression while also providing tangible support that helps immigrant and refugee farmers participate in the local food economy. In this project, the organization seeks to assist 70 new and beginning farmers to maintain and expand their businesses.

Through workshops and one-on-one technical assistance, recruited farmers will learn advanced climate-smart production techniques like seed improvement, conservation agriculture, crop diversification, soil and water conservation and management, integrated disease and pest management, agroforestry, and more.

What Wakulima USA hopes to do differently is to create a space for farmers to bring to the table their own ancestral ecological knowledge and sustainable farming practices. In this project, culturally competent education is critical.

“Because of language and cultural differences, we sometimes think that we don’t have this knowledge even though we do,” said Wakulima USA co-founder David Bulindah. “We want to use our common language to help people understand soil rotation, soil pH and other things that are relevant so people can say, ‘Oh I understand what you’re talking about here.’”

By the end of the project, participating farmers can apply the knowledge gained on land acquisition to access more land; further adopt and implement climate-smart practices, adopt and use market connections to expand beginning farm businesses and improve market sales, and increase the number of community members who are farming.

“This is a huge opportunity that will open doors not just for our organization, but our community,” said Runo. “We’ll be able to truly expand our networks and outreach to many people and the work will not stop after the three years are up, either.”