Why farmers in Arid lands are smiles all way to bank
The Standard
Updated 2 hr(s) 55 min(s) ago
By Joe Ombuor
Change your old farming methods or face starvation.
This is the stern message by the Government to farmers in areas experiencing persistent drought.
The Government seeks to encourage farmers to embrace new farming methods as opposed to traditional ones.
Parts of lower Eastern Province like Tharaka, Ukambani and Mbeere, where long spells of drought have killed subsistence farming, the Government is moving in with innovations and new techniques to beat this climate hazard.
The Arid Lands Resource Management Programme under the Ministry for the Development of Northern Kenya is leading the assault against aridity and with initiatives that are giving farming a new lease of life.
reason to smile
One such project is the introduction of hybrid poultry for organised groups of farmers in Mbeere District.
The project is already giving farmers a reason to smile. In almost every homestead, you are likely to find thorough bred chicken.
Farmers in Kitui District have turned to lucrative fish farming.
Folks now have birds weighing almost twice their traditional breeds with twice or thrice the market value.
The Hybrid birds are fetching as much as Sh500 at the market instead of the paltry Sh100 to Sh150 fetched by local breeds, while eggs that are bigger and healthier are in high demand, each going for Sh10.
"People do not buy these eggs for food, but as a short cut to improved breeds once they hatch into hybrid chicks. All they do is have ordinary incubating hens sit on them," says Mr Christopher Wamae, the Mbeere drought management officer.
Where goats are the economic backbone as in the newly created Kyuso District, farmers are upgrading their traditional herds through special bucks that sire bigger crossbreeds with higher milk yields.
To help in the project, farmers volunteer to host buck stations where other farmers bring their she-goats for breeding.
The result is bigger, faster growing kids that weigh up to 35kgs on maturity and fetch up to Sh5,000. Local goats weigh between 15 and 20kgs and hardly fetch Sh2,000 in the open market, according to a contact farmer, Mr Samuel Kimwele Kanyoli, who hosts a buck station.
Kanyoli says improved goats are ideal during drought when pasture is scarce.
"A hybrid goat yields more milk in a day than six local ones put together," says Kanyoli.
In monetary terms, one improved goat can earn the farmer up to Sh120 per day. A litre of goat milk costs Sh40.
The Mwingi District Drought Management Officer Francis Koma, who also serves the new Kyuso District, says the two districts have 17 buck stations sponsored by the Arid Lands Resource Management Programme.
dwindling crop harvest
"Apart from providing the bucks to improve local breeds, we train the farmers on good farming methods and conduct tours to expose them to what farmers elsewhere are doing," says Koma.
Dwindling crop harvest has been turned into endeavours to maximise on whatever is produced locally. To that end, groups such as the Wonawiki Self-Help Group and the Kithethesyo Women’s Group in Mwingi District are showcase examples.
For farmers in dry regions bee keeping is the preferred path to food security. PHOTOS: EMMANUEL MOKORO
PHOTOS: EMMANUEL MOKORO
In Kitui, Ngwani Women’s Group is dancing its way to fish stocks currently maturing in a dam they recently constructed with assistance from the arid lands programme. Besides, they use the water to irrigate a vegetable farm.
After undergoing training under the programme, members of the Wonawiki Self Help Group are adding value to their meagre yields by making nutritious and lucrative cakes from millet, mandazi (doughnuts) from sweet potatoes, pilau from a mixture of sorghum and green grams and healthy, caffeine-free ‘tea’ from roasted sorghum.
Mrs Mary Kimanzi, the group’s treasurer, says a kilo of sorghum they used to sell at Sh5 during harvest time and a kilo of green grams that earned them Sh20 now earns them much more when cooked for public functions.
"We charge according to the size of the sufuria, between Sh500 and Sh1,000. A smaller sufuria requires five kilograms of sorghum and two kilograms of green grams while the bigger sufuria requires double the amount, says Kimanzi.
value added
To prepare a cake worth Sh500, explains Kimanzi, it would require ingredients worth less than Sh100.
"For sweet potato mandazi that costs the consumer Sh15 a piece, a single potato tuber that ordinarily would retail for about Sh5 in the open market can produce 20 pieces when mixed with one glass of wheat flour.
Sorghum tea that Kimanzi says is "very popular" with customers, requires only two spoonfuls of roasted, ground sorghum flour in a thermos flask with a capacity of 12 glasses. An extra spoonful of flour is added to the thermos if the water contains milk. She says a glass of sorghum tea with milk costs Sh20 while that without milk goes for between Sh10 and Sh15.
The group also makes jam from pawpaw fruits that ordinarily fetch not more than Sh20 in the market. A 50-gram bottle of pawpaw jam retails for Sh100. Kithethesyo Women’s Group in Migwani has gone a step higher with a fruit processing machine capable of churning out up to 100 litres of high quality mango juice, tomato sauce and pawpaw jam per hour. The processor donated by the programme cost Sh350,000.
Group Chairperson Councillor Phoebe Kisee terms their experience as a revolution that has seen them save on food and increase their income.
"We used to sell 10 mangoes for as little as one shilling, leave them to rot or give them to school children when the fruits were in season. Paw paws, which are harvested throughout the year, gave us a pittance. We now sell a 500-gram of concentrate mango juice for Sh100. Pawpaw jam and marmalade cost Sh100 for 100-gram bottle while tomato sauce fetches Sh80 for 300 grams.
The group has undergone training at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology. Ms Kisee says with their savings, they intend to buy land to develop their project.
not left behind
But Kitui and Siakago farmers have not been left behind in this initiative. To boost food production and their income, they have turned their land into fish farms.
Mr Benedict Musyoka, the district’s drought management officer, says many families are taking up fish farming because it thrives even in the total absence of rain.
He adds: "It is also relatively labour- and expense-friendly for those who can afford the prime hurdle of constructing a pond, the only expensive phase of the project, costing upward of Sh30,000 according to the size."
Already, individuals and groups have put up fishponds with assistance from the project and the Fisheries department.
The Ngwani dancers group has combined fish farming with vegetable growing.
"A single fish can bring in enough money to feed a family for day. It is a worthy venture indeed," says Mrs Angeline Mulwa, the group’s co-ordinator.
Further south in Makueni, Kibwezi and Nzaui Districst, bee keeping is the preferred path to food security as it does well in poor climate. The practice that incorporates making of hives is a major income earner in a region where crops fail reigns.
Mr Paul Mutae Ndekethi, a retired teacher, who owns 15 hives in Kathonzweni, says he is able to feed his family and pay his bills comfortably.
"I harvest honey three to four times a year. A kilo of honey fetches Sh300," he says.
Mr David Mbuvi, the Makueni District’s drought management officer, says efforts are being made to equip the farmers with modern skills.
Mr Peter Emuria, the programme’s support and communications officer, says the initiative is gradually achieving its aim for not only sustainable food production but also eradicating poverty.
Article and photos at: http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143995446&cid=4&
