Production Farms

With support from Purdue University, AMPATH operates three production farms covering a total of 10 acres, which produce approximately 6 tons of vegetables per week, with capacity to produce 11 tons/week.  Patients collect the food once a month from food distribution points located throughout AMPATH's catchment area. 

AMPATH has in the last year started a new approach of production which can be termed "client feed client," or  "Kenyans feeding Kenyans." It goes by several other names such as "P4P Plus" or "Ampath E-Voucher Vegetable Production." This model builds on the knowledge gained from the conventional farming system in the AMPATH-run farms. Patients are given a chance to produce vegetables on contract. The farms are distributed around a clinic catchment in such a way that there is minimal travel to collect products. Clients are given monthly prescriptions and just walk-in to the nearest site and collect whatever they need at any time, as frequently as is convenient but without surpassing prescribed amount. Total value collected from the farmer is paid electronically at the end of each month. This has many advantages: economic empowerment of clients, frequency of collection ensures freshness, reduced cost of collection, cuts down on logistic cost to AMPATH of hauling produce from centrally located farms, encourages weaning-off since the contracted farmers have to be off the feeding program, appropriate choice of varieties for each locality, wider transfer of skills/technology.