Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Alumni Lucia Epur Lebasha (Class of 2017, Kenya) has been connected to the land since she was a young child in northern Kenya, a region of arid and semi-arid areas highly affected by climate change. These harsh conditions greatly influenced the community’s livelihoods due to the high incidences of food insecurity, drought, and famine. Lucia’s passion for agriculture and effecting change in her community is rooted in these experiences.
At 11 years old, Lucia approached her elders to obtain permission to be part of the ‘’Tree is Life’’ initiative, leading her to organize seedling trees to create cleaner air and combat deforestation. While staying with her aunt in a region that supported crops, she planted carrots and kale to earn money to pay her school fees. Due to her high academic scores, she received a scholarship to attend Kisima Mixed Secondary School, a private institution founded to serve the youth of pastoralist tribes in northern Kenya. There, her interest in agriculture and helping her community grew even more. These early life events and her time at EARTH would shape her future and lead her to where she is today, working to transform her country’s food systems.
Since graduating from EARTH, Lucia has been working with the indigenous Turkana community with a focus on dry land agriculture and alternative livelihood projects. She is training pastoralists who are transitioning to become agro-pastoralists, teaching them best practices and providing them with the skills they need to enhance crop production, ensure productivity, and introduce different types of irrigation. She has worked with over 5,000 farmers for seven years since she graduated.
“Agriculture is not easy in our area because temperatures are very high, and we don’t have enough water. We have a high incidence of food insecurity and extreme cases of malnutrition. These were communities that were only keeping animals, which was not sustainable due to lack of vegetation and degraded pastureland. I am working so that the community, especially the children and the women, can have access to higher-calorie foods and consume different types of foods. When I was growing up, I thought one day I would like to see this pastoralist community produces its own food. I’ve lived that dream for the past seven or so years. I have seen that a region like ours can produce its own food,” says Lucia.
Lucia is currently working with Kerio Valley Development Authority, a Kenyan government institution whose mission is to lead communities in building a more robust and more diverse economy. Before that, she served as an Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Specialist at PanAfricare Impact Program, an organization aimed at reducing malnutrition levels in Turkana County through agri-nutrition. In all her work, she is focused on transforming the way her community uses the land and introducing solutions to pressing local problems.
Lucia is making an impact in a variety of ways. She serves on the Board of Governors for Laikipia North Technical and Vocational College and as a part-time lecturer at Turkana University College, teaching courses in Agricultural Production, Irrigation, and Biosystems. She is putting the EARTH model into practice wherever she goes. “When I began teaching, I noticed much of the format was lecture-based. Because of my time at EARTH, I really valued learning by doing, and so I worked to integrate that approach into our teaching. Now we are taking students into the field, to some of the projects I have worked with, and students are much more active in their learning.”
Lucia’s work with the Turkana community has been recognized with awards, including the Resolution Project Fellowship, the Dalai Lama Fellowship, and the African Farmers Club Awards for being among the best Kenyan agronomists in 2019.
In 2023, Lucia completed a remote master’s degree in Global Food Security and Nutrition from the University of Edinburgh. Her dissertation was on “Appraising the Role of Biofortification in Enhancing Food Security and Reducing Malnutrition Levels in Developing Countries.” She has been applying what she learned directly to her community.
“Changing the food systems in my area is quite possible. For example, we use the animal manure to make compost which improves the soil quality. We are channeling water from the rivers to the farms. We are using boreholes to extract water. And when we have problems with salination in the borehole water, we are learning to plant crops resistant to salinity and high temperatures. During my master’s program I learned about bio-fortification to help relieve household nutrition. We’ve introduced fortified beans, which are high in iron and sweet potatoes with higher nutritional value. This kind of change contributes quickly to household food security. These are crops that grow well in these temperatures,” she shares.
Lucia is always looking ahead to integrate and learn about innovative ways in which she can help her people. But she also looks back with thankfulness at the opportunities that life has offered to her. “EARTH and Mastercard Foundation gave me the opportunity to live my dream of transforming my community. The skills that I’m applying now I learned at EARTH. It’s not always easy to be geared toward community work, but I learned that element of empathy for the community at EARTH and at my high school, Kisima, where our motto was ‘Empower to Transform.’ In both places, I learned that it’s not only about you. It’s about helping out the people around you.”
It is clear from talking with Lucia that she will continue to have a deep impact wherever she is. She has not only a passion for her community but a clear understanding of the world’s most pressing environmental and food systems challenges. “Our main challenge is we don’t really get that intersect between food systems and climate change. It’s not only about boosting productivity – it’s about having better policies. All the ministries and producers must work together to create a food system that helps with food security and climate change,” says Lucia.
When Lucia first began studying at EARTH she said, “My dream is to create a thriving agricultural sector in the dry land of my region. Not just for my family, but the community as a whole.”
Now, this is not just a dream, but a reality. We applaud Lucia for her continued efforts to make a significant difference in her region and in the world.