FRUITED PLAINS INC Information

Fruited Plains was established in 2005. We began by planting fruit trees at churches on Mt. Elgon, Kenya. Mt. Elgon is an expansive mountain range reaching an elevation of 11,000 feet. It is quite rural and the land is fertile. The primary leadership at the time on the mountain was the church. It was for this reason we chose to work with the churches to provide fruit to people in the villages who were extremely poor and had little food. Fruited Plains quickly grew and within a few years we were growing a sustainable maize seed on 10 acres. Maize, the staple food in Kenya, requires purchasing seed year after year. The people of Mt. Elgon lacked the resources to purchase the seed and fertilizer needed. The maize seed we grew we coined Miracle Maize. It could be planted year after year and harvested two times a year instead of just one like the traditional maize seed. We trained the farmers to make their own compost (a cost saving on fertilizer) and trained them on the Miracle Maize so that it could sustain them for many years to come. Fruited Plains assisted 2,983 families with this sustainable seed and each of those families gave it out to others. This seed came at a time when land clashes on the mountain lead to starvation. The impact of this project lead to a sustainable food source as well as paid school fees for the children of these families. Times in Kenya shifted and we realized the only way for the people of Mt. Elgon to rise out of poverty utilizing their main commodity, their land, was to assist them in growing and selling high value crops. This is what we are currently doing to change the economy on Mt. Elgon from a depression to one that is thriving. The name of this project is called, Toror Initiative. Please read about it on the Toror Initiative page.