Steve Tolo, Regenerative Agriculture for Community Empowerment, Kenya
"My dream is to see every community thrive, every family able to feed their household, and every student able to get the required education."
Meet Steve Onyango Tolo, a 28-year old permaculture, regenerative agriculture and syntropic agroforestry practitioner living in Kisumu, Kendu Bay, Kenya near the shores of Lake Victoria. He is the founder and director of Regenerative Agriculture for Community Empowerment (RACE).
I met Steve through people we have in common such as Syntropic Agroforestry experts
Van Reenen in Kenya (featured day 31) and fellow Syntropic Agroforestry trainee now trainer in Ethiopia (featured day 4). But, there were other mentors and trainers of his whom I didn’t know. So, I asked. And, Steve gave me the lineage.That’s when I envisioned Steve Tolos’s “family tree”. Instead of a linear, Western family tree, I offer a different visual: a circule of relationships connecting mentor with mentee that also acknowledges each person’s direct connection to the indigenous and traditional knowledge and practices.
Ultimately, Steve is practicing that which his ancestors already knew. He is just - via these mentor-mentee relationships above - re-membering and re-collecting indigenous and traditional knowledge about how to live sustainably and in harmony with nature.
Steve Tolo’s Origin Story
The oldest of eight with an aged father and a mother who essentially raised him on her own, Steve wasn’t able to afford school fees. To stay in school and graduate, he worked hard to raise scholarship money for himself. With sponsorships from a US-based nonprofit to finish secondary school and attend college, he was able to graduate November 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. Like any new graduate, he hoped for a job. But he was entering the workforce just as the Coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
Instead of entering the workforce, Steve practiced farming on his father’s land, but without any thought to design. He also worked for others either as a farmhand in agricultural fields or in construction. One farming job was at permaculture practitioner and trainer Maurice Obuya’s Kajulu Hills Ecovillage.
Steve’s time at Kajula Hills became more than a job. Maurice took Steve under his wing, mentoring him in permaculture and ultimately training him. Steve received his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from Maurice’s Kisumu City Permaculture Academy in 2020. It was there on Maurice’s farm, that Steve met Syntropic Agroforestry expert and trainer Roland Van Reenen.
Apparently, sparks flew for Steve, because within the year, Steve hosted Roland back at his family’s farm. Together, they created a small food forest demonstration site on 1 hectare of land given to Steve by his father. By 2023, Steve was not only certified in Syntropic Agroforestry from Roland but also attended a Train the Trainer event on Rusingo Island.
Steve was now fully trained. His training combined with community organizing, training, and regenerative farming experience at home solidified his role as ChangeMaker in his community.
Regenerative Agriculture for Community Empowerment (RACE)
In 2022, Steve formalized his passion for teaching others about regenerative agriculture in his community by organizing a Community Based Organization called Regenerative Agriculture for Community Empowerment (RACE). The organization now has 17 members and three leaders including Steve and two women.
Since organizing, Steve and his fellow RACE leaders have trained over 200 community members in regenerative agriculture and established several self-irrigating local kitchen gardens for 15 households, many of which are women-led.
Meanwhile on the demonstration site he started on his 1 hectare of land, which is now three years old, he grows bananas, mangoes, soursop, lemons, passionfruits, guavas, avocados, mulberries, indigenous vegetables, and pineapples. Napier grass is in abundance as is lemongrass (which he hopes to dry and sell for herbal teas). Here is a short video showing the growing food forest he is building.
Regenerative Agriculture Radio Program
One of the achievements that Steve is most proud of, as if the above wasn’t enough, is his participation in the Farmers Voice Radio Academy and his Regenerative Agriculture Radio Program.
In 2022, he enrolled in a 6-month course provided by Farmers Voice Radio Academy. Once certified to produce radio programming (in December 2022), he was one of several students selected for funding, becoming the first regenerative agriculture farmer to be funded by the Academy. A short video interview of Steve still exists on the Farmers Voice Academy’s home page.
Steve’s Regenerative Agriculture Radio Program ran from March 2023 to August 2023.
It was broadcast from a local radio station that is privately owned in Kisumu and has a listening radius of 30,000 people. The target audience was the Luo-speaking community. We pre-recorded the shows on the farm with the farmers actually discussing their challenges with one another. We invited the radio host and producer to the farmers’ sites and recorded them in the field talking to one another, engaging in conversation and responding to each others challenges. We also invited experts in regenerative agriculture. The listening audience could send in feedback; I was in charge of receiving the feedback and answering questions. - Steve Tolo
The radio show educated the Luo-speaking populace of western and Nyanza regions of Kenya on the importance of regenerative agriculture in food production and environmental conservation. He received so much positive feedback and interest in the topic that he was motivated to continue serving the community and environment after his program was finished.
Plans for the Future: Farmer Training and Community Learning Center
Through his experience in his community and in particular the radio program, Steve has identified a persistent gap in knowledge amongst farmers in his area. Very few are familiar with regenerative agriculture and he wants to change that.
He is also passionate about ensuring education for every child in the community. As a child who found it challenging to raise the funds needed to finish schooling, he wants to give back by establishing a scholarship fund to pay the school fees for children of poor families.
He has combined these two passions - farming and education - into a Farmer Training and Community Learning Center. He plans to build this new community facility on his father’s land. It will serve as a place for meetings and trainings as well as a library and learning center for local children and youth.
My dream is to see every community thrive, every family able to feed their household, and every student able to get the required education. I would love to see a sustainable community living in an environment where there is more life. - Steve Tolo
When He’s Not Changing the World, Steve is…
Enjoying music and sports, specifically soccer, although he says he doesn’t play. He is a Chelsea Football fan! He also enjoys being around family and friends and storytelling. He is married with a 3-year old son.
Advice for Aspiring Young ChangeMakers
Just start now, every small action and every positive change contributes to a larger impact that can inspire others. Stay committed, collaborate, and keep learning from every experience. - Steve Tolo
Who Inspires Steve?
Steve named Maurice Obuya whose permaculture credentials are extensive. Maurice is the founder of Kisumu City Permaculture Academy and Kajulu Hills Eco-Villages. Maurice learned from Joseph Leitanyui of Laikipia Permaculture Centre in Kenya. And, Joseph learned from Brett Pritchard who was a student of Australian permaculturist, teacher and writer Bill Mollison.
Maurice has been my mentor for over four years. He allowed me to learn from his work and taught me a lot about community work. He also helped me develop my communication skills which sharpened me for my work today. - Steve Tolo
Where in the World is Steve Tolo?
