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i n f o r m i n g a n d i n s p i r i n g f a r m e r s

www.smartfarmerkenya.com

July 2016Issue 31

Ksh250/= | UGsh 7,500/=TZsh5000/= RWF 2,000/=

Rearing pigs for maximum returns Three-time winner of Baconer of the Year award earns over Sh700,000 monthly from his animals. He shares his secrets of successful pig farming

Avocado oilTwenty-three year old causing waves in cosmetics industry with his avocado oil brand

Discover how once condemned crop is turning farmers into millionaires in Eastern

How farmers in cold places are raising fish in greenhouses

Greenhouse fishSorghum gains

informing and inspiring farmers

July 2016

3

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Value addition

Quality seedlings

Sorghum millionaires

Cassava turns tables

HomeBiogas

Coffee inspiration

At only 23, this young man has al-ready built himself a brand in the cosmetics industry by adding value to avocado. P54-55

Now any farmer can have access to quality seedlings, grown in opti-mum conditions, by just making a call. P18-19

Once condemned as an abandoned crops, sorghum has made a turn for the better and is changing farmers in Eastern into tycoons. P46-47

The tuber, formerly regarded as a poor man’s crop in Kenya, is begin-ning to take its place as a worthy competitor to the more high-value ones. P44-45

Discover the new invention that you can use to make cooking gas using your own kitchen and food waste. P26-27

Having started with almost zero from neglected bushes, she is near-ing 30 kilos of cherries from each of her 400 bushes . P16-1746

26

18

48

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Contents

16

informing and inspiring farmers informing and inspiring farmers

July 2016 July 2016

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Many associate pigs with dirt be-cause of their voracious eating hab-its and tendency to enjoy a splash

in mud. This does not bother one of the most successful farmers, who earns Ksh700,000 a month.

It took the unfortunate mayhem of the 2007/8 post-election violence to change this Kajiado farmer’s attitude towards pigs and he is reaping the benefits.

He came from the very low of the theft of his 12 cattle by rustlers taking advantage of the political crisis, to excel.

He has put the myth of dirty pigs behind him and is a valued supplier to Farmer’s Choice, which buys only 50 pigs and his bank account is healthy.

Another object of ridicule that is gradually gaining respect is a cash crop that has been largely seen as a poor people’s food. It is the cassava.

While many people still look down upon the cassava, thanks to the lowly perception of it by the colonialists, one man in Kitui, having discovered the hidden potential in the tuber, is not looking back.

According to agricultural experts, the re-silient crop might soon overtake other crops in value. With proper agronomist practices, the experts say the cassava is potentially more rewarding than many other crops and yet it is well-suited to the harsh conditions in most of the country.

There are several other fascinating ac-counts of a resurgent agribusiness environ-ment. Not everybody is uprooting coffee bushes to plant real estate.

In Nyeri County, one farmer is not only rehabilitating her coffee farms, but also leas-ing abandoned farms in her neighbourhood, with an eye on value addition that promises a rosy future for the sector.

But on a rather disappointing note, we

also highlight the plight of maize and wheat farmers in the North Rift, who face grim prospects next season as an acute shortage of fertiliser continues to bite.

The Ministry of Agricultkure officials need no more prompting to intervene and end the shortage.

Finally, any mention of biogas conjures in many people’s minds bulky farm-based plants, whose efficiency raises some doubts though it is a useful source of self-generated energy.

Well, with this new technology

from Israel, it is now possible for families to generate their own clean energy in not just the rural areas, but also in towns. The answer to the energy question is a highly advanced family-sized biogas system that is affordable.

And there is more for you to enjoy reading and learning from. Enjoy.

Write to: [email protected]

Forget the dirt myth, pigs are clean money spinners

Editorial

It is now possible for families to generate their own

clean energy in not just the rural areas, but also in towns. The answer to the energy question is a highly advanced family-sized biogas system that is affordable.”

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We would love to hear from all of you.Please drop a line to the Editor at :editor@ smartfarmerkenya.com

Or write to Editor Smart Farmer magazine 52103-00100 GPO Nairobiwww.smartfarmerkenya.com

Facebook:Smartfarmer Magazine

EDITORIALEditor-in-ChiefBERNADETTE MURGORTel: 0724 446 647

[email protected]

EditorMUCHIRI KARANJAAssociate EditorMWANGI NDIRANGUContributors PETER MURUMBA WAIKWA MAINAMWANGI MUMEROIAN KIPLIMOKEN LUMWAMUCHARLES NGANGADesign & LayoutMASHARIKI SANAAMarketing PATRICK MUSALIAEBBY NANZALASUSAN NGUGI

Cartoonist IGAH


July 2016 July 2016

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July 2016 July 2016

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Events and shows to attend this year

Year planner

EVENT DATE DURATION VENUE

M.t Kenya Branch Show- Nanyuki May 26th-28th 3 Days Nanyuki

Meru National Show-Meru June1st- 4th 4 Days Meru

Agritec Africa June 5th-7th 3 Days KICC

Eastern Kenya Branch show-Embu June 10th -12th 3 Days Embu

Dairy Farming & Farm visit June7th 1 Day United State Of America

International Flower Trade Expo June 8th-10th 2 Days Oshwal centre Nairobi

DAIRY LIVESTOCK & POULTRY EXPO June 15th-17th 3 Days KICC

Western Kenya Branch Show-Kakamega June16th-18th 3 Days Kakamega

Kenya Foodex June 22nd -24th 2 Days KICC

Royal Highland show June 23rd -25th 4 Days Royal Highland Centre {RHC}

Y.F.C.K National Camp June 25th 1 Days J/Park

S.E Kenya Branch Show -Machakos June 29th-2nd 4 Days Machakos

Y.F.C.K National Rally June 28th 1 Day Jamhuri park

Nakuru National Agriculture Show July 2nd -6th 5 Days Nakuru

Southern Kenya Branch -Kisii July 14th -17th 4 Days Kisii

Africa food techno business conference July 16th-18th 2 Days KICC

Brookside Livestock breeder show July 21st-23rd 3Days J/Park

Natinal Agriculture Teachers conference July 21st-22nd 2 Days Egerton

Kisumu Regional Show -Kisumu July 30th-3rd Aug 5 Days Kisumu

Mombasa International Show Aug 24th-28th 5 Days Mombasa

World Ploughing contest Sept 1st-11th 10 Days England

Banking and Mobile COMESA Sept 10th-11th 2 Days Intercontinental

Central Kenya National Show -Nyeri Sept 14th-17th 4 Days Nyeri

N.E Kenya Branch Show-Garissa Sept 15th-17th 3 Days Garissa

Nairobi International TradeFair Sept 26th -2nd oct 7 Days Jamhuri park

Food Agro Oct3rd-5th 3 Days K I C C Nairobi

S.W Kenya Branch show-Migori Oct 6th-8th 3 Days Migori

Migori Satellite show Oct 9th-11th 3 Days Migori

International Rubber expo Oct 11th-14th 2 Days KICC

Kabarnet Brach Show -Kabarnet Oct 13th-15th 3 Days Kabarnet

Kitale National Show-kitale Oct 26th -29th 4 Days Kitale

Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture Octob 27th-30th 2 Days KICC

Food proccesing and packaging symposium Nove 18th-20 2 Days KICC

National Ploughing Contest Nove 28th-29th 2 Days Nakuru

by simon gichuki [email protected]

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July 2016 July 2016

10 11

By Mwangi [email protected]

A total of Ksh100 million (US$1 million) in grants is up for grabs for global innovations to enhance

the shelf-life of cassava, the staple food for over 500 million people in Africa.

In partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Dalberg Global Development Advisors, the Rockefeller Foundation launched the innovation challenge to provide solutions to the short shelf-life of cassava and enhance food security and income for millions of farmers on the continent.

Announced in Kigali, during the re-cently ended World Economic Forum, the challenge fund will provide technical as-sistance to implement business develop-ment models and product design.

While cassava is an important root crop in Africa, the main source of food for half the population, its shelf-life is very short. According to experts, unprocessed cassava goes to waste within 24-72 hours

of harvesting.In Africa, Nigeria leads in cassava pro-

duction, accounting for more than 20 per cent of global output, with 50 million tonnes annually.

Most of it is produced by 30 million smallholders.

Experts warn that over 40 per cent of cassava harvest is lost to post-harvest spoilage – negatively impacting on rural incomes and food security.

The panel will consider applications from organisations that can enhance shelf-life or reduce postharvest losses.

“We have been working on cassava im-provement and value-chain development

for many years.We are very excited about the potential

of this challenge to bring innovations to smallholder farmers,” said Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the IITA director-general.

According to Mr Mamadou Biteye, managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation Africa regional office, his foundation has a long history of support-ing agricultural innovation and enhanc-ing food security and farmers’ incomes.

Dalberg is a strategic advisory firm exclusively dedicated to global develop-ment and innovation.

Nigeria-based IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in seeking solu-tions to hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

It is one of the research centres under the consultative Group of International Research (CGIAR).

News

Sh100m up for grabs in cassava innovation challengeThe aim is to get solutions to the short shelf-life of cassava and enhance food security and income for millions of farmers on the continent

Sliced cassava tubersPhoto|COURTESY

Innovative energy and cost-saving solar solutionBy SMaRT FaRMER wRiTER

Chloride Solar has launched a power grid tie system designed to reduce day-time power consumption and drive down power costs by up to 50 per cent.

The Chloride Grid Tie System tar-gets electricity customers whose power consumption is higher during the day and this mainly includes industries, institutions, hotels, and residential es-tablishments.

Launching the system at NAS Plas-tics Limited recently, a large-scale

manufacturer of plastic products, Chloride Exide managing director Guy Jack said the system, which caters for up to eight per cent of daytime power consuming appliances, is designed to replace power that a consumer would ordinarily use from the Kenya Power grid.

The system has a 40kilowatt (kW) capacity and comprises 160 solar mod-ules and two pieces of 20kW grid in-verters. The solar modules, once con-nected to the grid inverters, produce Direct Current (DC) when hit by sun-

light, which is then converted to Al-ternating Current (AC). This replaces equivalent electricity from Kenya Power, enabling electrical appliances to continue working normally.

With ongoing concerns about the high power costs, the system will be welcome news to manufacturers, as it is designed to save them about Ksh1.5 million annually in power bills.

It can also be customised to meet the needs of smaller consumers, including households or mid-size establishments at up to 5kW.


The management of tsetse flies could get easier, following the identifica-tion of genes responsible for chemi-

cal sensing in the flies by researchers at the International Centre for Insect Physi-ology and Ecology (ICIPE).

The tsetse fly transmits the parasite that causes Nagana in livestock and sleeping sickness in human beings. Over the years, the fly has limited livestock farming in Lambwe Valley in Homa Bay County, al-though recent advances in tsetse fly con-trol have reversed this trend.

Trypanosomiasis, also known as Na-gana, kills an estimated three million livestock in Africa annually. It also affects rural development and livelihoods by lim-iting options for mixed farming and hin-dering a balanced use of natural resources.

In a recent issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, researchers say they have discovered that different spe-cies of tsetse responsible for transmitting sleeping sickness and Nagana use the same set of genes to find their hosts.

Tsetse flies, like mosquitoes, search for their food by detecting chemicals that the hosts produce, such as carbon dioxide.

“Tsetse flies only feed on blood, which means that they do not need the same number of chemosensory genes as other insects that feed on other hosts. However, tsetse flies have more genes that can sense carbon dioxide than other insects,” says Ms. Rosaline Macharia who undertook this research at Icipe as part of her PhD in Bioinformatics.

According to Ms Macharia, the genes en-able tsetse flies to find food.

“If it is possible to disrupt these genes, then the tsetse fly is less likely to prey on humans and livestock and therefore less likely to transmit Nagana and sleeping sickness,” she said.

Researchers now add that the findings will allow them develop a viable approach to tsetse control.

“This research is exciting, because it means that we can develop a unified ap-proach to control of tsetse fly,” says Daniel Masiga, Head of the Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics Unit at Icipe.

Over the years, scientists have been looking for cheaper ways of minimising infections to replace existing methods of control. These include keeping indigenous ‘trypanotolerant’ cattle breeds, which can tolerate trypanosome infections without getting sick.

Others include treating sick animals with trypanocidal drugs to cure them of the disease while introducing sterile tsetse flies into an area to reduce its tsetse popu-lation.

Use of pyrethrum-based insecticides in controlling tsetse populations is also a vi-able way of controlling the disease.

The International Livestock Research institute (ILRI) together with Icipe have been researching to develop repellents that keep tsetse flies off cattle to reduce infections.

Breakthrough in Tsetse fly control

News

identification of genes responsible for chemical sensing in the flies could turn the tables in management

News

Farm mechanisation in six coun-ties in Kenya, which have long relied on livestock for their live-

lihoods, received a boost last month, through the donation of 12 tractors by the Turkish government.

Garissa, Mandera, Wajir, Isiolo Lamu and Tana River counties each received two tractors and support equipment. Isiolo County also re-ceived a fully-equipped ambulance with the total donation estimated at over Ksh50 Million.

The tractors and support equip-ment including ploughs trailers and disc harrows, channelled through the Turkish Cooperation and Co-ordination Agency (TİKA) were handed over to the six counties by Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdogan.

Speaking during the hand-over ceremony in Nairobi, Mrs Erdogan said Turkey considers Kenya a long-term strategic partner and is com-mitted towards boosting its devel-opment agenda.

“Despite the geographical dis-tance, Kenya is close to the hearts of Turkish People. Through TIKA, we shall work and support the coun-try’s development plans,” she said at the function attended by govern-ment officials and governors from the six counties.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett and Principal Secretar-ies Mwangi Muraguri, Mwanamaka Mabruki and Josephta Mukobe were present.

Governors Nathif Jama (Garissa) Ahmed Abdullahi, (Wajir) Ali Roba (Mandera), Issa Timamy (Lamu) Godana Doyo (Isiolo) and Hussein Dado (Tana River) received the equip-ment on behalf of their counties.

Mr Bett, the Cabinet Secretary who spoke on behalf of Kenya Gov-ernment thanked the agency and the Turkish government for the do-nation, pointing out that it will go a long way in boosting agriculture in the respective regions.

“The main agricultural activity in the six counties has been animal keeping, recently, farming it has also been introduced in some areas through irrigation. The future of agri-culture is in mechanisation,” he said.

Turkey donates tractors to six counties


July 2016 July 2016

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Farmers can finally envisage a fu-ture where they will walk into a financial institution with a viable

agribusiness proposal and get a loan to fund it processed within minutes.

This follows a move by development partners, Kenya Government, finan-cial institutions and the Central Bank of Kenya to explore ways of eliminat-ing stumbling blocks that hinder many banks from investing in agribusiness.

For many years now, farmers have been facing various hurdles in access-ing loans. Majority of banks consider the farming community a risky group to lend money to since a good number of them lack trusted collateral and record keeping skills.

But this scenario is bound to change in coming days as the agricultural sec-tor continues to draw more attention from key decision-makers locally and globally.

Financial access has been identified as a major barrier for potential farmers, including youth and women, seeking to venture in one of the largest economic sector in the country.

Kenya’s Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries cabinet secretary Willy Bett la-

ments that while agriculture contributes to 26 per cent of the country’s Gross Do-mestic Product and employs up to 80 per cent of the rural population, many com-mercial banks have been shying away from financing the sector.

Agricultural lending amounts to hardly more than three per cent

of loan portfolios of the entire financial sector with banks, Micro Finance Insti-tutions and SACCOs giving this sector a wide berth.

“Agriculture has been a victim of bias where we look at it as a rural enterprise. This we need to correct immediately since there is no doubt that it is a very lucrative sector. We are putting strong measures to encourage lending and I am happy to report that some banks are slowly changing their attitude. They have come up with products specifically targeting the farming community,” said the cabinet secretary.

He promised to appeal directly to Cen-tral Bank to prod more banks into sup-porting the agricultural sector.

“I think we should employ more agri-culturalists in the banking sector to help demystify this notion in a practical man-ner. Personally I will be visiting the Cen-tral Bank Governor to ask him to prevail upon commercial banks to stop being too strict when asking for collateral, so that we can revolutionalise agriculture in the country,” he said.

Central Bank Governor, Patrick Njoroge, called for the establishment of a borrower-friendly lending programme with innovative products to suit the farming community.

“There is always a bias when dealing with a farmer. In the mind of a banker, a farmer is that person who drives an old pickup and wears a stained white shirt and has no idea how to keep farm re-cords or balance books of accounts,” said

Bright future for farmers as bankers move to improve lending

Financing the farmer

In the mind of a banker, a farmer is

that person who drives an old pickup and wears a stained white shirt and has no idea how to keep farm records

Mr Maarten Susan (left) of FaCTS, Cabinet Secretary Mr willy Bett and Kimberly Tilock of global CommunitiesPHOTO|MWANGI NDIRANGU

agriculture Ministry, Central Bank of Kenya, bankers association and development partners call for an end to banks’ mistrust for farmers

Dr Njoroge.The minister and the governor spoke

during the launch of Certificate in Ag-ricultural Finance (ECAF) at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi in early June. The ongoing training tar-gets 140 lending officers drawn from various financial institutions across the country.

The campaign to make more farm-ers access loans is spearheaded by Global Communities, an international non-profit organisation that has now brought on board various local and international partners to improve the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable com-munities, including farmers.

“It is our hope and expectation that this training course will enable the financial institutions to make loans available to more agribusinesses and help this critical sector to have the sup-port it needs to meet the economic and food needs of Kenya, Malawi and Tan-zania,” said Ms Kimberly Tilock, Global Communities Country Director during the ECAF launch.

Ms Tilock said through ECAF, they seek to improve the skills and knowl-

edge of agribusiness staff in financial institutions in East Africa to encour-age greater lending to the agriculture sector.

During the function, Kenya Bankers Association CEO Habil Olaka observed that poor lending to the agricultural sector was not only a Kenyan phenom-enon, but cuts across Africa.

Noting that the sector provides liveli-hoods to more than 60 per cent of Afri-ca’s population, the CEO said it attracts less than five per cent of lending from the continent’s financial institutions, leaving farmers and agricultural enter-prises starved of the capital they need to operate and grow their businesses.

ECAF has been funded by the Agri-business Investment for Market Stimu-lation (AIMS)− a five-year programme funded by the US Department of Ag-riculture and implemented by Global Communities to grow the agriculture sector in East Africa.

The programme builds on the re-gional expertise of Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Agri-finance train-ing and on the Finance4Agriculture (F4A) programme.

Banks to design friendly collateral terms suitable to agricultural investors

global initiative launched to address funding limitations on farming communities with organisations such as Bill & Melinda gates Foundation coming on board

Banks to create forums to interact with farmers to have a better understanding of agribusiness

government to link producers with markets with a view of encouraging contract farming

Legal procedures towards financial access to be simplified

a borrower friendly lending programme to be initiated in financial institutions with focus on agribusiness

Farmers to be encouraged to insure their investments to win bankers’ confidence on lending

Efforts to make financial access easier to farmers


July 2016 July 2016

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Was the 2016/2017 budget farmer-friendly?

Financing agriculture

A number of observers have pointed out that the 2016/2017 Ksh2.26 trillion budget−the larg-

est in Kenya’s history− did not exactly meet farming expectations, arguing that the Ksh34.5 billion allocated to Agricul-ture was a tiny drop in the ocean com-pared to, say, Ksh233 billion allocated to security.

Although the ministry of Finance ex-pressed confidence that this year’s budg-etary allocations to Agriculture would go a long way in reducing Kenya’s depend-ence on rain-fed agriculture improving food security, a number of observers say

this optimism falls flat when alongside amounts required to make significant impact in the sector.

“Unfortunately, the low investment in the budget waters down the statement and is alarming and this is exacerbated

by underfunding and low priority to ag-riculture at the county level, a threat to on-going projects started before onset of devolution. The share allocated to agri-culture at the counties is low” notes the Institute of Economic affairs.

This year, the government allocated Ksh 34.5 billion to agriculture, Ksh 7.1 billion for Livestock and Ksh 4.5 for fish-eries billion.

It allocated KSh20.8 billion for irriga-tion projects; KSh 4.9 billion for subsi-dised fertiliser and seeds; KSh 1.6 billion for Strategic Food Reserves; KSh 8.4 bil-lion for an Offshore Patrol Vessel for the

fisheries sub sector and the modernisa-tion of the Kenya Meat Commission, reviving the pyrethrum sector, livestock and crop insurance scheme. Livestock value chain support; and the mechaniza-tion of Agriculture.

KSh 1 billion was set aside for crop di-versification programme in Meru target-ing Miraa Farmers and KSh 2.4 billion for coffee debt waiver & STABEX.

But financial observers say this year’s budgetary allocation for agriculture is still a drop in the ocean, considering that the sector contributes 25.3% of the GDP valued at Ksh961 billion. They point out that the allocation falls way below the Maputo Declaration of 2003 in which Af-rican countries set 10% of total national budget as the mininum allocation for agriculture.

“In Africa, the average expenditure on Agriculture is 4.5%. Therefore, Kenya’s expenditure is below average by 1.33% for the year 2016/2017,” notes Geoffrey Kerosi of the Kenyan chapter of Interna-tional Budget Partnership (IBP).

He points out that that even the amounts allocated to the National Lands Commission went down compared to

last year’s budget, as did the amounts al-located for fisheries.

“Despite the increase in budget for NLC from Ksh1.54 bn to Ksh1.63 bn. The percentage share decreased from 0.11% to 0.10% in 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 re-spectively. The budget for fisheries was cut by Ksh324.5 million or by 7.75%,” he says.

The allocation of funds to breathe some life back into ailing Kenya Meat Commission, the pyrethrum and sugar

industry also attracted a share of

criticism, with observers questioning the logic of injecting billions of shillings into state corporations that do not show any signs of bouncing back; while letting individuals that milked them dry walk scot-free.

“The public and civil society should as a result demand that the government justifies why it has resorted to bailouts and in turn eat into the limited taxpay-ers’ money, yet the results have been dismal. In addition, there is very little if any action in terms of prosecuting the culprits that have led to the downfall of

these corporations. The same applies to recovery of stolen assets,” asserts the In-stitute of Economic affairs.

Although the government increased funding for irrigation projects, the Insti-tute of Economic Affairs questions the logic behind pumping more into Irriga-tion schemes before auditing their suc-cess so far.

“It is important to note that the re-sults of massive investment in scaling up irrigation are not clear. For example, Galana Irrigation project has received since 2013/14 Ksh3 billion and another Ksh3.5 bn in 2014/15 but implementation of these funds and the progress made has lagged behind set targets of 4,500 acres. This is a matter that the relevant Agri-culture committee and non-state actors should exercise oversight and demand accountability from relevant ministry of-ficials,” observes the Institute.

Still, there were some positive reviews−International auditing firm, KPMG gave the Finance ministry’s move to exempt taxes on animal feeds. In last year’s budget, the government announced VAT exemption of animal feeds. This year, the government went further to exempt raw materials used in manufacturing animal feed from VAT.

However, the effect of this exception will only be felt should manufacturers follow it up with passing down the ben-efits accrued from this exception to live-stock farmers

“This will attract more manufacturers to invest in the sector and ultimately in-crease accessibility to animal feeds at a reasonable cost for food security,” noted KPMG

In Africa, the average expenditure on

Agriculture is 4.5%. Therefore, Kenya’s expenditure is below average by 1.33% for the year 2016/2017”

– Mr Geoffrey Kerosi

Though there were some positive moves like exempting taxes on livestock feed, a number of observers feel that this year’s budget did not meet farming expectations and that the allocations made were a drop in the ocean compared to some other sectors

The livestock sector was allocated Ksh 7.1 billion. an allocation was made to revive Kenya Meat Commssion

34.5bnamount in Kenya shillings allocated to agriculture


July 2016 July 2016

16 17

By waiKwa Maina

While many frustrated coffee farmers were abandoning their crop or uprooting it alto-

gether, Mrs Njambi Wachira was doing the exact opposite — leasing the aban-doned farms and breathing life back into them.

Nothing will separate this mother of two from her coffee farm, neither the un-

predictable coffee prices, nor the coffee wars that occasionally flare up in coffee factories in her home area.

“Whether the payments are poor or not, the secret is in having the best qual-ity and more kilos of cherry, that way, a farmer will always have something to take home,” she says.

Mrs Wachira owns 400 flourishing cof-fee bushes that have become a source of inspiration to farmers in Nyeri.

Located at Chorong’i village, her farm has become a training centre for other farmers. Going by her visitor’s book, the farm is frequented by senior coffee researchers, senior county and national government officials and agriculture of-ficers.

Her day begins at around 6am, when she wakes up to inspect her bushes, taking time to study and understand each tree. She has mastered each of the 400 bushes in her farm and can eas-ily tell each individual tree’s weakness, strengths, performance and its produc-tion history.

The grower developed a special inter-est in the coffee bushes in 2011, when they were totally neglected.

Having started with almost zero yield from neglected coffee trees when she took over, Mrs wachira is on the way to producing 30 kilos of cherries from each of her 400 buses

Why her coffee farm has become a source of inspiration to many

Coffee management

Passion for this crop has seen her visit places and make a name in the coffee in-dustry. By 8am, farmers, agricultural of-ficers and curious visitors start trickling in to her farm for tutorial lessons about coffee farming.

Although she has no degree in coffe production, her perseverance, hard work and interest in coffee management has earned her respect and admiration from farmers in the area.

“She is our best performer and an en-couragement to those who had neglected or totally abandoned their coffee bushes, those who uprooted theirs are replac-ing them on getting tutorials from Mrs Wachira,” says Mr Hunyu Githae, the chair of Mutheka Coffee Farmers Coop-erative Society.

She says it has not been easy rising to be among the best coffee farmers in her area. Sometimes, it has been frustrating.

“My husband’s family decided to sub-divide the family land and that is how we got the neglected coffee bushes. I started working on them, very hard, investing every coin I had. I also took farm inputs on credit from my Chorong’i Factory, but believe me not, I never harvested a single kilo of cherry.

I did everything but at the wrong time and the wrong way, thus the bushes aborted all the flowers and few cherries they had,” she says.

She was left penniless with a loan to clear at the factory, and some explaining to do to her husband, then a truck driver in Nairobi.

“I explained the whole thing to my husband when he visited, I expected him to react very negatively, but I was more concerned when he remained silent care-fully listening and watching me.

The next thing he did was to walk into the farm at that late hour at night; he later came back but never said a thing about the losses. He woke up very early in the morning to again survey the farm,” she recalls.

He had been impressed. The farm was clear of weeds, the coffee bushes pruned clean and well-manured.

“He asked me about my plans with the coffee and I told him that I intended to give it a second, a third and even a fourth try.

He stared at me and asked if I needed any assistance from him, to which I an-swered that my fears were that the fac-tory may not be willing to give me any more inputs on credit,” says the farmer.

A few hours later, he came back with a few members of her factory’s manage-ment, who, after a quick inspection of the farm, instantly agreed to advance her more inputs.

Buoyed by this support, she begun studying more about coffee production, attending all farmers training days, seek-ing advice from lead farmers and experts, and reaped her first reward in the form of 500 kilogrammes of cherry.

Her production increased to 1,500kgs in 2013, then 4,000kgs in 2014, and by last year, rose to 9,800 Kgs. She is op-timistic that this year it will hit over 12,000kgs, which is equivalent to 30kgs per bush.

Her farm is attracting the attention of agrochemical manufacturing companies and coffee research firms, some of whom sponsored her for coffee farming train-ing at the Coffee Research Foundation in Ruiru. Another top official with an agrochemicals manufacturing company offered her a chance for an educational tour to coffee farms in Burundi and Tan-zania

“I was motivated by the big number of women interested in coffee, unlike in Kenya, where coffee farming is a man’s

business,” she says.

Her advice for coffee farmers?Do not inter-crop coffee with any-

thing else. “Stop intercropping coffee with maize and beans, at the end of the day, none of the crops produce anything worthwhile.

Either uproot the coffee and concen-trate on food production, or let it stand alone. Intercropping compromises cher-ry quality and quantity, it is, therefore, a waste of land and resources,” she says.

Farmers should do proper research on the types of inputs they intend to ap-ply, she says. They must purchase from reputable organisations, where quality is guaranteed. “Cheaper is always expen-sive, it’s the way you feed and tend to your coffee that will determine the har-vests.

Every coffee farmer must have a copy of the coffee calendar available at Coffee Research Foundation and adhere to it.

Besides the annual coffee payments, Mrs Wachira earns handsome income training other farmers, charging them Ksh200 per person.

Whether the payments are poor

or not, the secret is in having the best quality and more kilos of cherry, that way, a farmer will always have something to take home

Mrs njambi wachira at one of her coffee bushes.while others were uprooting their coffee, she was researching and learning how get a better production.

Adhere strictly to the coffee calendar. Do the right thing at the right time. “When I began, I did everything at the wrong time and the wrong way. Top dressing with compound fertilisers is normally done between October and November or at the onset of short rains, I did mine around June.

Pruning and weeds control by digging and circle changing is done in January

Folia feeds rich in zinc and boron are applied by February, before the long rains begin. Boron helps in flower production while zinc controls flower abortion.

Spray copper in February since leaf-rust begins attacking around the same time. Sprayi two months before flowering, which comes between April and May.

In March she applies well-prepared compost manure

In April, top dress with nitrogen fertiliser, and when applying remove the leaves around the coffee bush to ensure the fertilizer lands on the soil. Apply at least two weeks after start of the rains and repeat in May.

In June spray folia feeds rich in nitrogen and potassium again. Potassium helps in proper use of water.

In July repeat zinc and boron to take care of flowers to be produced around August, and apply compost manure if you failed to apply in March.

By September, the beans produced from April flowering are now mature for ripening, spray more coppers, and the circle begins again.

In January and February, she applies agricultural lime at 500 grams per tree.

Her advice on success


July 2016 July 2016

18 19

a germinating room where we maintain the right humidity and temperature. This al-lows the plants to germinate uniformly,” Mr Bouton says.

There are several germinating rooms with different temperatures and humidity.

Temperature is aimed at unifying germina-tion. Different varieties need different con-ditions.

“Plants in nature don’t germinate uni-formly. They moderate their germination as a survival mechanism. Unified germina-tion, one of the cornerstones of modern ag-riculture, is being created by manipulation of crossbreeding varieties and looking for qualities like higher sugar content, higher yields, resistance to disease and germina-tion,” he adds.

From the germinating rooms, the seed-lings are taken to the greenhouse, “where we have built a very sophisticated and unique system that allows us to minimise on the manpower required to move plants from shade to light, by changing the shad-ing on top.

Seedlings don’t like being moved. Every movement has an adverse effect. Our irriga-tion system is Italian, top-notch, computer-controlled, and programmable. It is more a robot than a computer. It will do what you command it.

After about 20 to 45 days, the seedlings are ready and they are packed in metal racks still in the trays ready for transporta-tion. This must be done with utmost care to avoid any damage or losses.

But why so much interest and trouble? Growing high quality seedlings that are

strong and healthy and can withstand harsh temperatures to produce quality fruit or vegetables is good for farmers.

You want a seedling that has strong and sturdy roots and stems, which can with-stand transplanting with no problems.

However, getting this quality can some-times be a challenge. You need to be sure about the quality of seed. Spend time moni-toring and checking as your seedlings ger-minate, be sure about the water quality and

By BERnadETTE [email protected]

As you approach the greenhouse-like structures at Plantech Kenya Ltd, Naivasha, there is nothing

spectacular that strikes you. Maybe there would be for those who have not seen anything similar to the sprawling green-houses spread across the horizon in Na-ivasha’s Flower Park.

However, looks, as the saying goes, can be deceiving. Indeed, this piece of land holds two large greenhouses on two hec-tares, housing one of the most sophisti-cated, state-of-the-art seedling propaga-tion technologies available.

As you enter the greenhouses that also house offices and other administrative sections, you will marvel at the place, but also at the rows and rows of seedlings.

“Farmers come here for the first time and get surprised and confused,” says Mr Elad Bouton, the Plantech managing di-rector, adding that the facility is becom-ing a major attraction.

“We are only three months into opera-tions, and yet every week 30 to 40 farmers come here for training. They are brought in by Amiran,” he says. Mr Bouton, an Is-raeli national came to Kenya in 2011, after working and training for eight years in high-tech nurseries.

Everything here is done with precision. It starts with the EPS trays that are fed by a machine with the soil substrate, af-ter which they pass through to another machine that sows the seeds methodi-cally, then through watering and then it is ready for the germinating room.

The company makes the EPS trays as they are not sold in Kenya and import-ing them is expensive.

While most seedling propagators use cocopeat as a bed to grow plants, here, imported peat moss is used as soil. “Using cocopeat is cheaper but it dries very fast.

We import vegetable seedling peat moss from Latvia, the most expensive

peat moss, so as to get a stabilised plug. The specialty of this soil is expressed by the size of the particles, the nature of par-ticulates and the pH level.

This has a tremendous effect on germi-nation and success of growth. It is very

hard to grow in soil that does not

have the right pH,” he says.“After choosing the soil, we use a ma-

chine to fill the trays and compact it to create maximum uniformity. The machine can sow a million seedlings of cabbages a day, which gives us a lot of capacity.

After sowing, we move the seedlings to

Plants in nature don’t germinate uniformly. They moderate their germination as a survival

mechanism. Unified germination, one of the cornerstones of modern agriculture, is being created by manipulation of crossbreeding varieties

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From left, seedlings at the Plantec nursery. Elad during the interview. PHOTOS|BERNADETTE MURGOR/COURTESY

High quality seedlings now just a call awayyou no longer have to wait for weeks for your plants to be ready for transplanting or worry about buying seeds that might not germinate. Just get ready quality from the experts

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July 2016 July 2016

20 21

quantity, and the right temperatures.Many farmers tend to ignore or not be

aware of some of the requirements for getting good seedlings. They just sow their seeds and wait for them to grow without taking the necessary steps for top quality. This, in turn, leads to poor germination and production.

“When you buy seeds, you are gam-bling on whether they will germinate or not. Some seeds are very fragile, and can lose viability quickly if not well-cared for or used in time. A good number do not germinate, sometimes due to poor han-dling and so you lose on time and cost of the seed bought, especially if it is of a variety that has special qualities. These are very expensive,” he says.

“Our plants have a very high success rate in the field about 95 per cent,” Mr Bouton says.

Time is money for any modern day farmer. “It doesn’t matter how many plants you are growing. A manager’s time is a very important asset to the business. If you are racking your brain, wondering, “where will I buy the seed, where will I germinate them”, or going every morning to monitor them, you are wasting so much time on something that is not meant for you,” says the Plantec Kenya seedling propagating company.

“Let the experts do it for you,” Mr Bou-ton says

Modern farming also requires that whether you are a small or large-scale farmer, you need uniformity in the crop, so as to harvest uniformly, he says. “The root of modern agriculture is uniform-ity,” he explains.

Some farmers also need thousands of seedlings and growing all these can be a challenge. Also, waiting for the seeds to germinate for two or three weeks can also be a problem. “Why take all this trouble?” he asks.

“All you need to do is call and say, ‘Elad, in week 13, please, deliver tomato seedlings to my farm’. Use the time you will be saving to improve your business,

and find suppliers,” he advises.“Also, when you eventually calcu-

late all your direct, marginal and vari-able costs, you will find that it is always cheaper to buy seedlings than to make them yourself.”

Since the company started operating in April, it has already delivered a few million seedlings to farmers. The com-pany, which targets to reach as many people as possible, started construction in April 2015, and operations in April 2016.

“We have discovered that propaga-tion is a numbers game. We have to

expand. We have decided to make our plants affordable to all, including small-scale farmers. My target is any Kenyan who wants to do professional farming be it of trees, vegetables, or herbs,” says the manager, who first worked as a rose propagator with Soloplant before leav-ing it to start Plantec with two other directors.

It is while working at Soloplant that he discovered that propagation for veg-etables in Kenya was scarce and not very advanced. “I decided to do something about it,” he says.

He and his friend Idan Salvy started the company and invited an investor. “But first we had to do some research. We travelled all over the world research-ing and inspecting nurseries for a year.

From each nursery we took something we liked and have built a high-breed fa-cility that combines bits from all the oth-er nurseries we have seen and from our own creativity. We believe our facility is unlike any in the world. Not the most so-phisticated, or beautiful but the only one of its kind.”

Plantec is locating distributors and is currently collaborating with Amiran Kenya in the distribution of the seed-lings. It also sources some of its seeds from Amiran.

“We want to be accessible to every farmer, including smallholders, able to place an order for seedlings whether it is for 1,000 or 100,000. There are many farmers, but unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to handle all of them due to logistics and negotiations. That is why we need distributors.”

The company has about 40 permanent employees and 20 casuals.

By Mwangi MUMERO

Asmall fish pond in your back-yard helps keep the doctor away, and makes you a stronger,

healthier farmer.Available research indicates that fish

consumption reduces mortality risk from heart disease by 36 per cent and overall death risk by 12 per cent. Daily intake of 60 grammes of fish is recom-mended by many countries as their na-tional guidelines to curb overall death rates.

Researchers say that when eaten whole, fish is an excellent source of mi-cronutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin B12, as well as fatty acids and animal protein.

“Fish are beneficial to nutrition and health and will play an essential role in sustainable health diets. Fisheries and aquaculture are core components of the agriculture sector as well as en-try points in improving nutrition and health,” says Shakuntala Thilsted, pro-gramme leader at WorldFish, an inter-national research organization working in improving fisheries and aquaculture.

Researchers now recommend that fish production should be diversified, improving value chain and markets and increased consideration to consumer preferences and nutritional needs.

Further research by WorldFish indi-cates that fish consumption can curb Vitamin A deficiency among the world poor. Lack of vitamin A is a leading cause of preventable blind-ness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infec-tion.

In pregnant women, deficiency can lead to night blindness and may cause increased risk of maternal mortality.

In Kenya, sardines, popularly called

omena, provide a huge boost to overall nutritional needs of the country.

However, most of Omena in Kenya is marketed through the animal feed in-dustry channel (70 per cent) and only 30 per cent is available for human con-sumption resulting in serious competi-tion for the commodity between direct human food and raw material for ani-mal feed.

The total production of Omena in Kenya currently stands at 68,000 met-ric tonnes wet weight out of the total Lake Victoria’s annual landings of about

144,000 metric tonnes, constitut-ing 47 per cent of the total fish

catch, according to Ministry of Agricul-ture and Livestock.

The dried Omena product has vari-ous advantages over other fish species because of its long shelf life, divisibility into smaller portions -making it afford-able- and its high nutritive value.

At the same time, getting into Om-ena business requires relatively a lower start-up capital when compared to all other Lake commercial species.

It is also easier to acquire and to han-dle both the wet and dry products.

Over 90 per cent of the total fish pro-duction in Kenya comes from Lake Vic-toria.

The value of sardines fishery in the East African region is estimated at Ksh20 billion (US$ 200 million) on the average against a regional total fishery value of about Ksh60 billion (US$ 600 million) when both the local and export sales values are considered.

The main production areas are con-centrated in Suba, Bondo and Migori regions.

News

in Kenya, Omena (sardines) provide a huge boost to overall health with its highly nutritious attributes.

Fisheries and aquaculture are

core components of the agriculture sector as well as entry points in improving nutrition

Reasons why omena should become part of your staple diet

Advertorial

From left, Elad explaining a point during the interview recently at the company’s nursery. Onion seedlings ready for transportation. Just arrived seedlings ready for planting on a farm.

>>>

For more information call or email: Elad: Tel [email protected]: Tel [email protected] office 0715171979


July 2016 July 2016

22 23

the fish ponds, especially dur-ing the dry season.

The greying clay soils on his farm made it ideal for pond construction. They are well compacted, allowing very lit-tle seepage of water for years.

The greenhouse changed the farmer’s fortunes within seven days. It has not only in-creased the growth of his fish stock, but also eliminated a cumbersome process of breed-ing.

Previously, Mr Ruhiu would mix male and female fish in the breeding ponds to mate and lay eggs. He would then squeeze the eggs out of the female mouths and carry the fertilized eggs to his house, where he incubated them un-der room temperature before returning the fingerlings to the main ponds.

“A lot of eggs and fingerlings would be lost in the process,” he says.

The green house fish tech-nology has changed all that. Today, the fish hatch and incu-bate in cages inside the green-house pond. The fingerlings are raised in cages suspended in the main pond where they are fed separately from other fish although they share the water. They are also protected from bigger fish.

He is also closing the sup-ply demand gap for finger-ings, thanks to doubled hatch-ing and the incubating rate. Within a month, he supplied 50,000 fingerlings to other farmers and organisations at Ksh20 each, earning Sh1 mil-lion.

“With the growth of fish farming and consumption, the demand for fingerlings and fish, in general, is so high that local farmers cannot meet it,” he says.

The greenhouse fish tech-nology is the solution to the problem that he and other fellow fish farmers have been struggling with for years. He no longer has to worries every time temperatures drop.

“Sometimes, overheating can lead to temperatures soar-ing to 34-38Cº, making the water dangerously hot and lethal. It becomes appropri-

ate to roll up one side of the greenhouse canvas to allow cool air into the pond,” he says.

Better still, he can now make apt projections and timelines in his fish produc-tion calendar.

“It’s easy estimate the num-ber of fish attaining maturity and calculate likely earnings. It is also possible to breed and raise fish irrespective of

climatic conditions,” says the project director.

The four pilot greenhouses will also be used to train more people on fish farming, pro-mote value addition and be-come the source of fingerlings to future rollout of the project.

A few fish pond tips from Mr Ruhiu.

Feeding: A critical aspect of fish production is done using fish pellets that farmers can

formulate on the farm to cut costs.

Management: You can raise catfish and tilapia together without them having to canni-balise each other: “Introduce tilapia first and raise it for three months before stocking catfish. By the time the catfish have attained the size where they can start predating on the tilapia; most of the tilapia will have been harvested.”

By Mwangi MUMERO [email protected]

For many years, pro-spective fish farmers in Nyandarua County have

been grappling with breeding warm-water fish species faster in the cold region on the edge of the Great Rift Valley.

On average, such warm-wa-ter fish require temperatures of between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius to breed and grow faster to earn farmers profits. But Nyahururu’s temperatures average 13 degrees Celsius and can hit lows of 10 degree Cel-sius

The introduction of green-house fish farming technol-ogy by a non-governmental organisation, Tree is Life, is expected to help change the fortunes of farmers in the twin counties of Nyandarua and Laikipia.

“In a greenhouse, tilapia

fingerlings can attain a weight of up to 100 grammes within three months, which is im-possible under natural con-ditions. They feed and breed better under these controlled conditions,” says Mr David Ruhiu, one of the first farmers to try out this technology.

On his 1.5-acre farm that overlooks Lake Olborosat — a few miles from Nyahururu Town on the Nyeri-Nyahururu road — the father of four runs five fishponds, teeming with tilapia and catfish. However, inside a greenhouse next to these ponds, is another 30 by 10 metre pond he says is not only the lifeline of the other five, but also of the families in

the area.

It is from this pond that he breeds his fish and raises the much-sought after table-size fish.

But why cover up an entire fishpond with a greenhouse?

“We realised that weather variability has impacted nega-tively on fish farming in the county. Our research showed that changed water tempera-ture through the greenhouse can boost fish production, especially in cold counties such as Nyandarua,” says Mr Thomas Gichuru, the director of Tree is Life project.

Under the fish project fund-ed by ACT, a national donor organisation, the county fish-ing department picked four farmers to start greenhouses

on their farms for the pilot-ing phase. All were chosen for their wide knowledge and ex-perience in fish farming.

“Each had to prove that he has access to ample water sup-ply throughout the year, dig a fish pond to the required spec-ifications, stock it with finger-lings, and then demonstrate keen interest and initiative so that the project input would bear fruit in the long run,” says the director.

The organisation supplied selected farmers with all greenhouse building materi-als and dam liners that reduce seepage of the water, valued at a cost of Ksh330,000.

One of the farmers who qualified for the project, Mr David Ruhiu, dug a fishpond at a cost of Ksh18,000 and in-vested a further Ksh100,000 to stock it with fingerlings. He sank two wells to guarantee uninterrupted water supply to

Fish farming technology to the rescue of farmers in cold weatherA greenhouse for fish

Fisheries

Farmer david Ruhiu feeds his fish in the greenhouse and top right, breeding cages used for raising fingerlings.PHOTOS|MWANGI MUMERO

In a greenhouse, tilapia fingerlings can attain a weight of up to 100

grammes within three months, which is impossible under natural conditions.


July 2016 July 2016

24 25

Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) is a regional private-sector membership, “not-for-profit” organisation, a com-pany limited by guarantee. It was founded in 2006 at the

request of grain stakeholders.It facilitates structured, efficient, inclusive and profitable grain

trade across 10 countries in Eastern Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The council has over 250 members that include registered en-terprises, companies and institutions in the three levels of the value chain:

Active members: Grain producers, handlers and traders and grain processors;

Affiliate members: Regional and national business associa-tions for farmers, traders or processors who affiliate as an organi-sation and;

Associate members: Service providers like input suppliers, financial institutions, business service providers and international organisations with an interest in the grain sector, etc.

EAGC promotes structured trading systems (STS) and market information systems (MIS) offered through the EAGC Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network, evidence-based policy advocacy for an enabling policy environment and training and ca-pacity building through the Eastern Africa Grain Institute (EAGI).

The organisation works closely with governments in the region, economic blocs like the EAC, COMESA and SADC, and develop-ment partners, to address challenges in food security.

Structured trading system through G-Soko:The EAGC G-Soko Trading Platform is an electronic system that

has a network of automated grain bulking, aggregation centres and certified warehouses, linked to a virtual trading platform.

It also includes participating banks for settlement, and clear-ing and trading houses (grain buyers, millers), all regulated and administered by EAGC, under the law of contract. It also operates under a defined set of protocols, procedures, rules and regulations.

G-Soko is a private-sector driven electronic grain trading plat-form by EAGC, in partnership with Virtual City, a Kenyan-based IT company, with support from the UK Government-funded Food Trade ESA project.

G-Soko gives confidence that, no matter where the warehouse is located, the uniform quality of the stored grains can be guar-anteed.

The Regional Agricultural Market Intelligence Network (Ratin) is a web-based regional one-stop-shop marketing infor-mation system www.ratin.net that provides timely, accurate, and relevant market information for grain stakeholders in the region.

RATIN was developed in 2006 to help reduce regional food in-security by strengthening markets to provide access to affordable food to poor households, and improve food availability through the provision of adequate incentives to producers. It covers six countries and 36 markets in Eastern and Southern Africa, col-lecting and disseminating information on internal grain market prices at country level, cross border trade flows at border points and warehouse stocks at warehouses.

The Eastern Africa Grain Institute (EAGI) is the train-ing and capacity building division of EAGC mandated to impact knowledge and skills pool to the grain value chain stakeholders within the Eastern Africa region.

The training targets farmers, traders, financial institutions, warehouse operators and other key actors in the sector. Some of the courses include: Warehouse Management and Opera-tions, Structured Commodity Trade Finance, Web 2.0 and Social Media for development, Agribusiness Financing and Graders Training

Policy Advocacy-ATPAF-ESA: EAGC with support from the UN Foods and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) established the Ag-ricultural Trade Policy Advisory Forum for Eastern and Southern Africa (ATPAF-ESA), to provide the mechanisms required for ef-fective engagement in policy developments in the region.

Since its establishment, EAGC has taken an interest in policy de-velopments in these regions, and continuously engaged in public-private policy dialogue with national and regional policymakers, providing a voice for the grain sector so as to create an enabling environment for efficient, structured and profitable grain trade.

The Forum has roles built around four pillars: (i) Improved policy monitoring, (ii) Enhanced evidence-gathering, (iii) Policy capacity building of stakeholders and (iv)Enhanced public-private policy dialogue.

African Grain Trade Summit (AGT): through ATPAF-ESA, the council hosts a biennial Grain Summit to facilitate high-lev-el policy dialogue between policy decision-makers and business leaders. The first African Grain Trade Summit in 2005 paved the way for the establishment of EAGC in 2006. Since then, the bien-nial event has proven to be one of our most potent tools, achieving progress in the agriculture and trade policy arena.

A decade stronger!Over the years, the council has contributed greatly to increased

integration of regional and national grain markets in the Eastern and Southern Africa regions. Bound by the strategy to develop and strengthen systems that promote structured, efficient, inclu-sive and profitable trade along the grain value chain, it focuses on inclusion of smallholder and large-scale farmers both at national and regional level.

In 2012, the council completed implementation of its inaugural strategic plan that realised significant achievements in key insti-

tutional and programme areas, among them: Growth in member-ship from the initial 28 founder members to 100 by end of 2012; high-level advocacy on regional governments interventions in grain price controls, export and import restrictions, non-tariff bar-riers (NTBs) and facilitating bi-annual Africa Grain Trade Sum-mits in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

During this period, the council has launched the Eastern Africa Grain Institute (EAGI) as a strategic business division of EAGC to institutionalise capacity building; it has rolled-out the Grain Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) in Kenya, and initiated the pro-cess for the establishment of a WRS legislative framework; and the process for the harmonisation of regional grain standards. It has also spearheaded the establishment of the Regional Food Balance Sheet Mechanism and the evolution of Regional Market Informa-tion System (RATIN), as the region market information hub.

Other key interventions include the initiation of the famous Agri-Business Fairs (ABFs) in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, for ca-pacity building and creation of business linkages, among the value chain stakeholders.

Creating an enabling environment for agricultural growth is a process worth undertaking through encouraging and supporting people to invest and innovate in the sector. With this thrust, the council entered into a more informed Second Strategic Plan 2013-2017, whose overall goal is to contribute to increased inte-gration of national and regional grain markets in Eastern Africa.

During this period, EAGC, has realised numerous mileposts: Development and launch of the first online grain trading plat-

form, the G-Soko. This is the future of profitable and efficient grain trade in the region. G-Soko is an automation of the Ware-house Receipt System.

Through its training division, EAGI, it has trained over 200 smallholder Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) in post-harvest management practices and financial institutions on structured commodity finance, to enable development of products for struc-tured grain trade and agribusiness financing.

The process of implementing the Warehouse Receipt System has been in high demand from the farmers. The council rolled out the warehouse certification process and certified over 40 ware-houses in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to support the system.

To strengthen marketing information systems, EAGC upgraded and maintained the RATIN as a regional market information hub.

It maintained the Regional Food Balance Sheet as a policy tool for regional governments and other stakeholders

Undertook policy reviews and advocacy in areas such as the WRS bill in Kenya, which is at an advanced level.

EAC grades and standards harmonised. EAGC is driving the review and implementation of the harmonised EAC grades and standards in the region.

So far, we have establishment in 70 per cent of the mandate countries; Kenya, Uganda , Tanzania, Rwanda , Burundi, Malawi and South Sudan

Above all, membership has grown to over 250 committed mem-bers across the region.

This year in December 2016, EAGC will be celebrating 10 years in existence. It is a decade stronger in advocating for streamlined grain trade; raising gains to all stakeholders, and promoting food security in the region. Highlighting these achievements, EAGC will take lessons to reposition itself and address emerging con-fronts in the sector.

Join Valuable EAGC Membership!EAGC envisions to be the leading voice for the grain industry in

Africa by advocating for an enabling environment and promoting structured grain trade for optimum stakeholder benefits:

Reduced transaction costs High-value business networking and partnership High-value information services: EAGC leverages the lat-

est technology to support your business throughout the grain value chain, from production to consumption.

Improve your knowledge and learning environment Gain from thought leadership and policy structures Realise the world of opportunities and expanded business

frontierInformation and communication technologies are playing a

vital role and as such an essential component in the developing value chains.EAGC is regionally acclaimed as the “VOICE OF THE GRAIN SECTOR”.

A decade stronger!


July 2016 July 2016

26 27

International diary

By BERnadETTE [email protected]

Food scraps – ugali and left over vegetables on plates; rice, meat, bread, and beans; potato, mango,

and orange peels, sukuma wiki stems, leaves and more, are the things that most of us just stuff into dustbins without a second thought.

Across the world, 30 to 40 per cent of the food produced is wasted. According to statistics, if we saved a quarter of this food today, it would be enough to feed about 870 million people. Food waste also contributes to global warming, dis-eases, greenhouse gas emissions, and wa-ter contamination.

But what if you could turn some of this waste into something productive?

Wouldn’t it be great to continue using gas for cooking without having to pay for it?

Well, this is possible, using your kitch-en waste, thanks to a new ingenious con-traption that not only turns this waste

into gas, but also produces a

highly nutritious fertiliser that can be used in the garden to grow more food.

It is a contraption that its inventors term as the ‘cycle of life’: You eat food, collect the leftovers and throw them into this biogas-making system. From the food you get gas to make more food, which will make more gas, and fertiliser to grow more food, which you will cook and reuse. It is an opportunity that gives millions of people a chance to cook with clean energy.

“You cook on the waste of your last meals. It’s green, beautiful, environmen-tal-friendly, positive and magical when you actually experience it,” says Mr Lior Magal, of HomeBio.

He was speaking at the company’s premises in Israel during a visit by a Ken-yan group to the Promised Land in April.

I was there courtesy of TechFarm Tours & Travel with a group of enthusi-astic Kenyan agro-tourists eager to learn everything they could.

Looking like a miniature greenhouse, the HomeBiogas system is a highly-advanced family size, user-friendly af-fordable biogas system. It is easy to use, assemble and maintain. With about six litres of waste a day, it is able to produce about 600 litres of gas that can give two to three hours of cooking; just enough for three meals a day.

Unlike other biogas systems, this one can be put almost anywhere, but the best location is in your backyard and it is easy to transport and takes only two hours to assemble. You can use all the food, kitch-en and animal waste in the system.

Food waste is a huge resource that can be turned into clean energy. It has about 10 times more energy potential than ani-mal manure. From a kilo of waste, about 200 litres of gas or one hour of gas is pro-duced. “All of that is a lot of energy that you are throwing away,” adds Mr Magal.

Besides food waste, the HomeBio sys-tem also helps to solve another major health problem – indoor air pollution. “Indoor pollution kills more than 4.3 million women and children every year, who are cooking on coals, charcoal stoves

Making your cooking gas with your own food waste

whether you live in town or in a rural area, you can now use your own clean biogas and not have to pay for cooking gas ever, thanks to a new highly advanced family-sized biogas system invented in israel

and wood. Some 540 million families still cook that way.”

His company, he explains, is providing a tool for people to turn the waste it into renewable clean energy to give them a better life,” he says.

Mr Yair Teller, the system’s chief scientist and founder, says: “It doesn’t matter where you put the system. Throw everything into the sink inside. There is an anaerobic di-gester that has bacteria which digests the waste. A filter inside cleans the gas, which is collected into another gas tank. And then you can pull it off into your stove.”

The HomeBiogas system is the culmi-nation of years of research. The team

travelled to many places in Africa, Asia and Central America to research on bi-ogas, and see how it works in different ways. The aim was to make a much bet-ter, easier, efficient and affordable system for everyone. “We went on a mission to bring biogas to every home,” he explains.

Four years ago, HomeBiogas was born.

Already, the system, which has been tried and tested, has received recognition from the United Nations and support and re-quests from all over the world. It has also received ISO certification.

According to Mr Magal, quality assur-ance is important to the company. “The material used to make it is of highest quality and guarantees its durability. The structure is made of stainless steel and will last for ages, while will the other parts can stay at least 10 years before re-placing,” he says.

The wall material can be confused for being similar to the cheap bags farmers use for storing maize, but, according to the scientists, it is made of tough material.

The system is available in Kenya.For more information email Caleb Wasilwa on [email protected] or call him on +254 724 738 393

Left, Kenyan agricultural tourists to israel during a visit to HomeBiogas get an explantation about the gadget. PHOTOS|BERNADETTE MURGOR/COURTESY

You cook on the waste of

your last meals. It’s green, beautiful, environmental-friendly, positive and magical when you actually experience it

a Homebio system does not need electricity to operate;

after installation, the system may take between two and four weeks to produce gas, but production is continuous as long as the system is continuously fed.

you can input up to six litres of food waste or up to 15 litres of animal manure into the system each day.

Every litre of food waste produces about 200 litres of gas, the amount needed for cooking for one hour over a high flame. On average, it produces two to three hours of cooking gas each day - the perfect amount for three meals;

HomeBiogas can provide between five to10 litres of top quality natural fertiliser each day;

it takes two people about two hours to instal the system;

The system performs well when the day or night 24-hour average temperature is 17°C and above. if it drops lower than that the unit’s gas output reduces, but it will work very effectively in high temperatures, either humid or arid.

Some points to note:


July 2016 July 2016

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cantly lighter footprint. The tractor is also expected to have a long 25,000-hr service

life, a 500-hr. service interval, and a maximum 2-hr. repair time. That includes a hybrid laser-radio navigation system that eliminates the possibility of the tractor straying outside of field boundaries, said Anderson.

It is also easily transported and costs less than half of tra-ditional tractors.

This tractor is the result of plenty of research, commitment and dedication Anderson and a team of researchers. They took 14 years to complete their ambitious project. Unlike many unmanned vehicles, Spirit does not use GPS for navi-gation. Instead, he works with ground-based transponders, set up around the perimeter of a shamba. If the transponder senses that the tractor is off track, the vehicle shuts down. This is because there have been reports of early-phase GPS-navigated vehicles straying off course and going rogue, crush-

ing anything that stands in their way.

Safety is a priority, this monstrous beast is fitted with sever-al safety mechanisms to ensure that it does not cause damage or harm on the farm. In the wake of limited and high labour costs, Spirit comes out as a relief to many farmers as he will bring efficiency and reduce labour costs. With his powerful engines, he can work for long hours, day and night.

Spirit is expected to be a low-cost, efficient, and reliable

tractor with a fail-safe no-driver navigation system.

in australia, a team of researchers from the australian Centre for Field Robotics (aCFR) and the dairy Science group at the University of Sydney have constructed a cow herding rover robot.

This robot is able to guide, direct and return a strayed cow back to the herd, like a person or dog would do. although it was initially developed to monitor fruits, it was slightly modified to be able to perform basic herding activities.

although it is still in its early testing stages, results from research were encouraging, showing how the cows readily and will-ingly accepted to be herded by the robot. This test was also done to see the interaction between the cows and the rover. This is because, unlike impatient humans and canine herd-ers, the robot moved at a

steady pace with the cows, which kept them calm and relaxed during herding.

Cattle need ample time to graze out in the fields and then be safely herded back. Herding livestock requires a lot of patience and awareness of cattle behaviour.

These set of skills are fundamental for optimum production from your herd, and in many parts of the world, these skills have been passed from man to dog over the past decades. now those same skills are going to be transferred to robots like rover, with artificial intelligence.

The research team showcased the rover at a dairy Research foundation symposium, where they received an undisclosed amount of money to con-tinue with their research and to develop an im-proved version of the rover.

in France meet wall-ye, an automated self-driving wine robot. wall-ye was designed and created by Christophe Millot, a French inventor.

The robot stands at about 50cm tall, 60cm wide and weighs 20kgs. wall-ye is programmed to prune vines, remove young shoots, cut fruitless shoots and monitor soil and vine health.

She is fitted with six sensory cameras − some at the top and bottom for navigation to ensure that

she maintains a straight path. Other cameras store the shape and location of every vine.

a 3d model also tells her when to cut and how to cut, which she performs with a pair of camera guided arms with clippers. She does the pruning with absolute preci-sion and accuracy.

wall-ye will significantly reduce human labour in the vineyard because she is cheaper compared to employing manual labour. Unlike labour workers she

why you may not be needing your herds’ boy anymore

wall-ye, the robot-vineyard trimmer

By ian KiPLiMO

Yes, it is a tractor though it looks like a box-shaped beast, standing over 10 feet tall.

Just imagine a situation where you don’t have to worry about having skilled tractor labour to mow, plough or harvest your fields. Where everything is done to precision as you want it by your tractor, where the charges of buying the equipment is almost half, where your tractor does all the work over and over again, over long hours without your physical presence. Well, you don’t have to imagine anymore.

Meet Spirit, a driverless tractor of the near future that is able to mul-ti-task with implements on the front, middle and back.

Created and designed by Terry Anderson an automation engineer at the Autonomous Tractor Corporation, Spirit is expected to be a low-cost, efficient, and reliable tractor with a fail-safe no-driver navigation system.

It is fully diesel-electric (no transmission, differential or axels) and autonomous – no cab. The innovative design will cost approximately half of a comparably-powered traditional tractor and have a signifi-

inventors and scientists are now creating robots and machines to do practically everything on the farm

Is this the tractor of the future?

Agri-Tech Trends

Spirit, a driverless tractor that can multi-task with implements on the front, middle and back

never gets tired, does not need to take breaks and can work day and night, pruning up to 600 vines a day.

Many wine makers in France are eager to try out wall-ye on their vineyards, despite criticism on the purity of it all.

wine making is an art passed down many genera-tions, and some critics feel that the use of robots on vineyards dilutes their senti-mental value.

as such, wall-ye has stirred

up debate on what is really important; tradition or the economical benefits offered by the robot. But for many farmers in France, economics trumps tradition, and wall-ye is welcome to reshape the wine industry despite her US$32,000 price tag.

Her inventor, Christophe Millot is not done with her yet − he plans to give her grape-picking capabilities in future, making her a fully-fledged wine robot.


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Farming God’s WayTechniques

By PETER [email protected]

Somewhere in Ngong on the out-skirts of Nairobi, Martin Thiam-pati is planting maize on his eighth

acre farm, in a unique way, save for the holes in which he is sowing the seeds. The rest of the land is not tilled at all.

Many farmers used to ploughing and digging up their land before planting might find Thiampati’s way of growing maize peculiar. But not for this father of five; what some might call odd, he calls Farming God’s way or getting the best out of land with minimal soil disturbance.

“Conventionally, when I used to grow maize on the same piece of land, I used to generate a harvest of less than a wheel-barrow. However, when I started farming God’s Way, the outcome has been tremen-dous, the yields have improved to about 35 per cent,” he says.

On his small piece of land, he is able to feed his family of five for the entire year, thanks to this method, something he says was impossible with conventional farm-ing.

“I also grew amaranth using God’s Way on the other eighth acre of land and the yields were better than before,” he says.

According to Thiampati, the amaranth grew to between six to eight feet tall and each plant yielded more than half a kilo of seed.

“Conventionally, the plants would have grown to a maximum of five feet,” he says.

Since time immemorial, we have al-ways ploughed our lands before planting, but Farming the God’s way advocates a different approach.

“You do not have to till your land to make it productive; only disturb the soil in places where you are digging the holes. The soil has layers and each has its usefulness. For instance, the top lay-er needs air while the bottom does not. When you till you might interchange the layers and in the process a lot of mois-ture gets lost,” he says.

The underlying factor in this style of farming is standards.

“In this farming practice, it is advis-able that everything is done up to stand-ard. Conventionally, many people will only use what is available, which could be more or less, in return output is poor,” he says.

In addition to doing everything to standard, Farming God’s Way advocates keeping as much of farming practices as natural as possible. For example, Thia-mpati uses mulch to conserve moisture and wood ash to neutralize soil pH in-stead of lime.

“Lime is effective only when used in the right proportions, when used in ex-cess or less, the intended outcome will not be realised. On the other hand, wood ash is organic and even when put in excess, the soil will not be damaged,” he says.

According to Antony Muga, one of the only two certified Farming God’s Way trainers in Kenya, this technique can help solve Kenya’s food crisis without damaging the environment.

“We must recognise the spiritual implication of an activity such as farming and only then can those who do it consider it as a calling and hence-forth do it in the right possible manner,” explains Mr Muga, Project Manager of Care of Creations, Kijabe, proponents of

Farming God’s Way.The trainer says that this method is not

only a knowledge base, but a practical empowerment to bring about change in one’s life and become an agent of change by setting certain farming standards.

“Is everything from preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting done on time? Are our farm activities done to high standards? ” he quips.

For Thiampati, there is no looking back and he ensures that Farming God’s Way gospel is spread by educating others on the same, whenever he gets a chance or an audience willing to listen.

“This is now a habit because the ben-efits are better. On the same portion of land, my yields continue to improve be-cause of faithfully following standards set by Farming God’s Way. Besides, I consider it a calling and will always use farming methods that will leave the land better than I found it by conserving the environment,” he says.

Care of Creations has so far conduct-ed 35 trials on its demonstration site in Kijabe, and he says that yields have doubled on plots where this system of farming has been applied compared to crops grown on conventional plots. At this centre, they also conduct trainings to increase the number of trainees in Kenya and offer free demonstrations on demand.

Many farmers used to ploughing, weeding and digging up their land before planting might find Thiampati’s farming style peculiar

You do not have to till your land to make it productive; only disturb the soil in places where

you are digging the holes. The soil has layers and each has its usefulness. For instance, the top layer needs air while the bottom does not.

Martin Thiampati planting maize on his farm. He has not ploughed the land. PHOTOS | PETER MURUMBA

do not burn crop residues at the beginning of the new season. Burning crop residue is the surest way to destroy microorganisms that reside in the soil. incorporating the crop residue denies the soil the ability to be naturally restored by the workings of the micro-organisms.

do not plough; it dries up the farm and destroys the microbiology of the soil.

Crop rotation is vital. Even the garden of Eden was not filled up with one crop only.

Through Farming god’s way, one can realise many benefits including reduced water runoff, reduced soil erosion, improved infiltration, reduced evaporation, cooler soil temperature better for seedling growth, improved weed control, improved water holding capacity, improved fertility from the organic matter, improved nitrogen fixing, reduced compaction, improved aeration and reduced field preparation cost and time.

a few cardinal rules on Farming god’s way

35pcRate at which Martin’s yields have improved on his farm since adopting god’s way


July 2016 July 2016

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Poor rains no excuse not to earn a million from your acre!By SMaRT FaRMER REPORTER

There are so many words to describe 47-year-old James Mathenge: well spoken – his English is impeccable; in-telligent – he has a Bachelors of Commerce degree from

the University of Nairobi and a Masters in Organisational Leadership from Eastern University, Pennsylvania; and driven – it takes ambition to work in more than five African countries for World Vision.

But the father of three does rank all these adjectives as high-ly as he ranks what he loves most –infusing technology into farming, a subject that he not only animatedly expounds to all and sundry but also demonstrates on his 30 acres of land.

“You can call me an Agri-preneur. My goal is to support sub-sistence farmers’ turn around into profit,” he says.

Twenty four years of traversing Eastern Africa teaching in-

novation, securing partnerships and improving livelihoods have brought him to one conclusion: that all farmers in the region, and indeed the entire continent, must embrace tech-nology if they hope to produce enough to feed their own and make profit.

“The use of technology in farming is a game changer. It not only makes farming more interesting, but it also makes farm-ers 10 times more profitable,” he says.

Kenya’s small-scale farmers form the bulk of the country’s agricultural sector. As long as they continue to depend on con-stantly changing weather patterns to farm, the possibility of food security will remain a dream.

“We have a lot of idle land out there; but as long as we do not employ modern available technology, our farming future is dim.”

There is no excuse for farmers to shun readily available and affordable modern farming technology, he says. Although a few decades ago it was a preserve of the rich, new innovators have come onto the scene making it more affordable and ac-cessible for small scale farmers out there.

“Take mist irrigation for example: a few years ago, it cost up to a quarter of a million to farm an acre using mist technology. Today, you can talk to SunCulture and get a Mist irrigation kit for one acre for less than Ksh40,000,” he says.

Mist irrigation is a system that waters soil surfaces in rain-like droplets and it is rapidly replacing conventional irrigation system. Mist irrigation is a more water-conservative method of irrigation than traditional methods and yes, it is affordable.

Drip irrigation systems (consisting of the filter, control valves, irrigation tape and main pipes) are also finally now affordable to millions of small scale farmers who could not af-ford them a few years ago, thanks to SunCulture. A few years ago, the system was affordable only for large scale farmers. Today, you can get a SunCulture drip irrigation kit to irrigate one acre for under Ksh90, 000.

The traditional rallying call for farmers in Kenya to ‘work hard’ he says, must change to ‘work smart’. For a fraction of the effort the average Kenyan subsistence farmer in Kenya currently expends, he or she can reap more than ten times what they are earning now by using mist or drip irrigation.

“I have 30 acres currently under irrigation using SunCulture technology. If I did not embrace it myself, it would be difficult to farm even two acres. Our Kenyan farmers put in a lot of effort but too often reap little rewards,” Mathenge comments.

If he chose to follow his parents’ traditional farming meth-ods from his youth in a small village in Laikipia County - methods that depended entirely on the weather - he would plant maize and beans on all 30 acres and look to the skies with bated breath for rain.

With SunCulture irrigation technology, however, his 15 acres in Ruai and 15 more in Mwala are always blooming with a wide variety of horticulture. Growing everything from onions to chili peppers, his farms are fifty times more profitable today.

“SunCulture irrigation technology weans local farmers off the weather. If I did not use it, I would most probably be earn-ing a paltry Ksh20, 000 per acre from maize and beans, and I could only grow when it rains. Now I can say I earn at least a million shillings per acre. What more proof do you need that this technology works?” he poses.


July 2016 July 2016

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Dryland farming

By SMaRT FaRMER wRiTER

Somewhere in the driest parts of Murang’a County, where the earth is scotched and barren, a five-acre

farm stands out like an oasis in the de-sert.

While many farms around it have been abandoned, this one is filled with bananas, mangos, macadamia, pawpaw, oranges and avocados.

Rows of spinach, kales and tomatoes are neatly tucked beneath bananas, and sacks of pawpaw seedlings, patiently await relocation.

In another part of the land, on a space measuring 25ft square is a two-storey structure that hosts two dairy cattle, six goats, 50 chicken and over 200 chicks.

The cattle are on the ground floor of

the building, while the dairy goats are settled on the first floor. The chicken, crossbreeds of local and Kenbro, which are heavier in weight and produce more eggs than the traditional kienyeji, are on the second floor.

Between them, the cattle, the goats and the chicken produce enough manure to keep the farm lush-green all year long.

“I usually have about 15 mature chick-en ready for sale every month, while retaining a stock of 50 to 60 mature chicken. I sell each at between KSh800 and KSh1,500, depending on size. I also sell fertilised eggs to other farmers. Be-

In a scotched, barren land his farm stands out like an oasis in a desert

after seven dry years, he finally won the fight with Mother nature. Find out the techniques he used to tame the land

sides, I milk an average of 15 litres to sup-plement my income, selling each litre at Sh35,” says Benson Muita, the owner of the farm.

A rich kitchen garden also serves a nursery for banana stems and pawpaw seedlings, all growing in polythene pa-pers for maximum use of water.

“Fruit production on the farm contin-ues to rise despite the scorching sun and the harsh climate. The better part of the earnings from the fruits is ploughed back to the farm. Improving the farm and the production processes are my top priori-ties,” he says.

If all goes well, Muita, who had to drop out of school due to lack of school fees, is confident of earning not less than KSh5 million in profits a year, with minimal costs on labour and production from this land.

Not that this piece of land, tucked somewhere at Summerland Range Mara-gua, is any different geographically from the others around it, but this success is attributable to the toils, trials, errors and successive losses that Muita had to go through, before he finally mastered the art of dry land farming, to tame the dusty-five acres into a blooming little Eden.

Seven years ago, his father passed on, bequeathing his son the only legacy he owned − the scorched unproductive patch of land that barely fed the family when he was alive.

And at first, Muita did not know ex-actly where to do with it.

“When he was alive, my father who could not afford my high school fees in-volved me in almost everything he did on the farm. He would make me tag along whenever he went out to the farm; so I had grudgingly developed an interest in farming. But I knew that the going was going to be tough since the farm is locat-ed in a dry, arid area,” he says.

But the young man decided that it was with what he had that he would use, and begun researching and looking for in-formation on how best he could use the land.

He hungrily read any agribusiness literature and newspaper articles that he stumbled across, and steadfastly fol-lowed farming programmes on radio and TV. He also faithfully attended all farm-ers’ training days in his area.

Seven years ago, the maximum price that the hot rocky patch of earth would have fetched per acre was barely KSh100,000. Not anymore. “I cannot sell it, not even for KSh10 million, I do not want to be employed either,” he says.

Different people define dry land farm-ing differently. But it boils down to one definition − it is the art of making the best out of dry weather conditions, using water conservation tricks in all practices throughout the year. It is based on one simple logic − even the driest desert re-ceives some rain some time.

Among the techniques that Muita used was a careful selection of plant drought resistant crop varieties, making the best of the little rains whenever they came through mulching, inter-phasing crops and animals, and digging a borehole.

“Most of the farmers abandoned their farms making mulching materials easily available to me. I spent most of my time cutting the grass. With a little amount of

water from the well, I was able to water the crops during se-

vere droughts until they could withstand the harsh environment,” he says.

The farms’ macadamia production has risen from an average 5kg per plant to 30kg, and Muita is optimistic that in five years, each tree will carry at least 100kg of nut. The farm holds 80 mango trees, whose production increased from an av-erage of 50 fruits per tree to 300.

Again, dry-land farming techniques dictate careful selection of variety. For example, for mangoes, he chose two types – Kent and Apple. The two mature at dif-ferent times in the year.

“Both produce flowers at the same time but Kent matures a few months after the Apple variety. Kent produces bigger fruits. I harvest the Apple mangos be-tween December and February, and Kent between April and May. Kent fetches bet-ter prices since they are bigger and take longer to mature, coinciding also with a period of scarcity in the market,” he says.

Muita is now bubbling with enthusi-asm. A half-finished family house worth at least KSh1.5 million stands next to the mud-walled house that his father left him. It shall be finished soon, he says, and in five years, he is confident to drive the car of his choice− because finally, he has tamed Mother Nature.

Benson Muita on his farm. He has been able to make something of the desolate land he inherited from his father.PHOTOS|CORRESPONDENT

Most of the farmers abandoned

their farms making mulching materials easily available to me. I spent most of my time cutting the grass.


July 2016 July 2016

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By Mwangi ndiRangU [email protected]

The decision to venture into pig rear-ing was not Mr Michael Wanyoike’s initial idea. Circumstances beyond

his control drove him into an unfamiliar territory, as he tried to gain a foothold in farming upon retirement.

He was a greenhorn then. Today, how-ever, he is a self-taught expert whose work is attracting national attention. In the world of pig rearing, his name has contin-ued to feature prominently since he first scooped the Farmers Choice-sponsored Baconer of the Year trophy at the Nairobi International Trade Fair. He has emerged the best for three years consecutively, beating a host of others, including some with vast experience in piggery.

These awards are proof of the wealth of experience he has gained in the past five years on pig rearing. Top pig deal-ers in the country, Farmers Choice have remained his valued customer, whom he

supplies with top quality pork. Returns from his investment are

equally handsome: He sells 50 pigs every month, raking in Ksh700,000. The farmer has become so passionate about pig farm-ing that he is now planning to take it to a higher level.

“I am working towards becoming the pioneer pig breeder in the country. It is unfortunate that for years now, pigs have

been ignored with all energy and resourc-es being directed to cattle, yet we all know that globally, pork is the most consumed animal product while beef is ranked third ,” says Mr Wanyoike.

He describes the pig as being among

the most misunderstood animals. The general misconception is that the pig is dirty. Unknown to many, this omnivorous animal ranks among the cleanest and most intelligent animals on earth.

“I have heard people argue that they fear venturing into piggery because the market is unstable. On the contrary, pork consumption is on the rise, not only in tourist hotels but in villages and estates where pork joints are competing for at-tention with the traditional beef and mut-ton butcheries,” he observes.

The success Mr Wanyoike is enjoy-ing is the culmination of a journey that dates back to the post-election violence of 2007/2008. He had just retired from the British American Tobacco (BAT), where he served as human resources director. A few years earlier, he had bought 45 acres of land in Isinya, Kajiado County, and wasn’t sure how to go about it.

He started beef rearing, with 12 cattle, which he intended to fatten and sell to butchers. Six months into the project, all the animals were stolen at the height of the post- election crisis.

This made him think about a project that would not be vulnerable in Kajiado County, a region mostly inhabited by pas-toralists who attach much value to cattle.

“The idea of keeping pigs came into my

mind as rustlers are never interested in them. With only some minor renovations, I converted my cattle sheds into pig sties,” explains Mr Wanyoike.

He bought six sows and a few weeks later, brought in 30 weaners. He thought then that little care was needed as the ani-mals enjoy soiling themselves in the mud. He would pay dearly for that mistake.

The pigs suffered from mastitis and di-arrhoea. He realised he had made a bad start but was not about to give up. He cleared the entire sickly herd and went for the second trial, buying three preg-nant gilts.

This time, Mr Wanyoike sought all the necessary information from experts and

visited Farmers Choice. He was assigned extension officers to visit his Kongoni Farm at Isinya.

This interaction with Farmers Choice marked the beginning of Mr Wanyoike’s road to success.

“Over the years, I have come to learn not only to treat pigs, but also to control the various pests and diseases. Diarrhoea remains the biggest threat, especially to piglets. Keeping the pig clean and ensur-ing that it stays in a hygienic environment is the surest way to keep a pig healthy,” he says.

His farm, located five kilometres from Isinya Township, on the Nairobi-Naman-ga highway, presents one with an image

of a modern commercial pig farmer. No smelly sties and the pigs are spotlessly clean. Each sty has a fly trap and the 500 animals look healthy and happy.

Farm manager Peris Wangari says: “We have 45 sows, two boars, 23 gilts, 70 piglets and an equal number of bacon-ers. The rest are weaners. Ours is a cross breed of landrace, large white and duroc.”

The farm has a weekly programme, where Monday is set aside for visitors. Tuesday is a day for artificial insemina-tion for weaned sows while Wednesday is for a thorough general cleaning and disinfection of the sties to control pests and other insects. On Thursday, the sows are weaned, while on Friday the farm wel-

50number of pigs that the farmers sells per month to Farmers Choice

He started as greenhorn, today he is a self-taught expert who has won awards and whose work is attracting national attention, with impressive earnings to crown it all

Learn the secrets of successful pig farming from the best in the field

AXXxxxxxxxx”

Pig management

Piglets enjoying a drink from their mother at Mr wanyoike’s farm. Mr wanyoike displaying two of the trophies he has won as best baconerPHOTOS|MWANGI NDIRANGU

PIG FARMERS FIELD DAYCome and learn about best practice in piggery

Venue – Kongoni Farm, IsinyaDate – 13 August 2016Time – 10.00 am – 2.00 pmKongoni Farm is 2013, 2014, 2015 Winner of Best Bacon Carcass – Nairobi International Trade Fair.The event is proudly sponsored by:Bewa Farmcare Limited-Thika & Kongoni Farm_IsinyaP.O. Box 1985-01000, ThikaBewa Farmcare: Tel 0707-639080Kongoni Farm: Tel 0706-351358Email: [email protected]

Manufacturers of Bewa Pig Feeds; ideal for indicative stages and weights:• Creep Energy Diet: A pre-starter for piglets from 7 days to weaning time at 30 days-old weighing 7Kg.• Weaner Vigour Starter: For nursery piglets from weaning 7kg to 25Kg• Porker Champion Grower: For after weaning stage-from 25kg to 70 Kg• Baconer Super Finisher: For the final stage before market-from 70Kg to 105 and above• Dry Sow & Boar Meal• Sow Lactation Meal

Entrance to Kongoni Farm, Isinya is free but confirmation is necessaryPlease confirm via phone by July 30, 2016Mr. Alex - Tel: 0707-639080, Ms. Peris - Tel: 0706-351358

Kongoni Farm

>>>


July 2016 July 2016

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comes visitors to the office and not to the sties. More cleaning is carried out on Sat-urdays and Sundays.

The five employees conduct AI services on the sows that normally come on heat five days after weaning. To achieve this, the weaned sows are exposed daily to the boar for only a few minutes. On the fifth day the sows, which are routinely weaned on the same day, are on standing heat and ready for AI.

“Our sows furrow on the same day but occasionally there could be a difference of a day. We wean them 30 days afterwards and on the fifth day, they are on heat. To keep the pigs healthy and meet our growth target, we have developed a food ration for every stage and weighing of the

animal. The animals are fed twice a day-at 6am and then at 4pm,” she explains.

What has been his winning formula for Kongoni Pig Farm for the last three years?

Mr Wanyoike says four factors deter-mine a good baconer. They are fat depth, leanness of the muscles, maturity of the animal within a particular time span and weight of the carcass. These factors he adds are influenced by the feeding pro-gramme, the feed itself and management of the pig farm. By following an estab-lished operational programme strictly at his Kongoni Farm, the farmer says he is able to achieve over 90percent of set goals.

“Everything in Kongoni Farm is pro-grammed and I can tell you with certainty when a particular sow will furrow, the

Pig management

Observe hygiene, keeping the sties clean all the time

weigh the pigs weekly and set a target on weight addition

Observe the temperature and make intervention in case of too much cold or heat

Ensure that the pigs feed well and have access to water around the clock

Observe diseases and treat them upon detection. Come up with a deworming programme

Keep proper farm records

Tips on rearing a healthy pig herd

>>>

>>>

want to sell to Farmers Choice? Here’s what you need to do

Have healthy pigs (fit for human consumption), which should be free from disease and originate from disease-free areas.

Observe 28 days withdrawal period from the day of last treatment.

Ensure pigs weigh between 80 – 100 kgs live weight and aged 7-8 months.

Have all male pigs castrated (Entire boars are not acceptable).

Payments are based on cold dressed weights (dead weights).

all pigs must be delivered to the slaughterhouse before 6:00pm on agreed days only.

Farmers Choice also Offers:

Free Extension services Free Monthly farmer trainings Feeds at subsidised prices Free collection of mature pigs Subsidised transport on own

pig delivery Somewhat steady market Prompt payment on

slaughtered animals – 24 hrs. good breeds - subject to

availability

days the piglets will graduate to weaners, to porker and the day I will sell them as baconer,” he says.

Feeding programmeProblems associated with quality of feeds

saw Mr Wanyoike establish his own feed manufacturing firm. Bewa Farmcare Lim-ited is located in Thika Town and manu-factures pig, poultry and cattle feeds. He also sells the animal feeds to stockists. The farmer says feeds determine pork quality.

Fat control in the pig is of utmost impor-tance. It is one of the key determinants in grading and pricing of the carcass. The pre-ferred fat depth of a carcass weighing 70kg is between 8mm and 12mm. The secret to success is having the right feed for the right age and in the right quantity. However, the cost of feeds might seem prohibitive and farmers have been known to go for cheaper types with low nutritional value, resulting in failure to attain the desired outcome. For a better return in piggery, a piglet should be ready for sale seven months after birth and it must have attained a weight of be-tween 90kg and 100kg so that dead weight


July 2016 July 2016

40 41

By KaREn K. OdOngO

Desperate and eager to evade the high prices of animal feed, Sam-uel Mbugua had to think ‘out

of the box’ on how to keep his piggery business, Grandeur Africa, afloat.

This led him to hydroponics, the art of growing crops without soil.

“The space in Nairobi is not getting any bigger but demand for food is growing by the day. People have to eat; hydroponics is a solution,” he says.

Hydroponics means working with water, a life giving resource that with some science is being used to grow life − literally.

Hydroponics uses only 1.2 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of fod-der, whereas fodder grown on land uses up to 90 litres of water for the same.

Mr Mbugua begun growing fodder hydroponically in 2012, when the Gov-ernment increased the tax levied on an-imal feed. He used an eighth-of-an-acre inherited from his parents in Mwiki, in the outskirts of Nairobi.

He uses perforated aluminum or plastic trays that are slanted on a shelf-like structure. When seeds are mois-tened to facilitate growth, the excess water drips down from one tray to the next in a downward motion. This water is then collected into a drainage that leads to a reservoir. The water in the reservoir can be reused on the seeds.

Fully germinated hydroponically grown fodder represents a six inch grass-like plantation on aluminum trays. It has a clean look, perfectly green with an underlying carpet of its milky white roots. Its growth is not in-consistent as it is independent of signif-icant limits of the atmosphere and soil.

In Kenya, a special variety of barley is used to grow hydroponic fodder. It is called six-rose; because of its growth of six heads during the early stages of germination. Using very little water, hydroponic fodder is fully grown in a maximum of eight days.

Germination days are dictated by the

fibre content required by an animal. Ruminants require 7 to 8 days of hydro-ponically grown fodder to achieve op-timum roughage points and proteins. Pigs and rabbits require six days while poultry only require four days, since they do not need roughage.

In comparison to other fodder crops, Barley has the highest protein concen-trate of 23 per cent, oats have 21 per cent but are very expensive to purchase and grow. Oats also require high main-tenance and are susceptible to diseases. Wheat has 19 per cent, millet 12 per cent, sorghum 11 per cent and maize a meager six per cent.

Hydroponically grown fodder has both consumer and investment inclined advantages. Mbugua has observed a 40 per cent reduction on feeding costs in his piggery and poultry business since

diverting to hydroponic fodder.While you need at least five acres of

conventionally grown fodder to feed five cows, hydroponic fodder grown on a 5 by 3 by 3 structure feeds up to 20 cows in a day.

Grown solely for its nutrient value, 95 per cent of it is digested by animals as opposed to commercial feed where only 60 per cent is digested. Its protein is readily accessible to animals without processing. This ensures maximum ab-sorption of nutrients.

When administering the fodder to animals, there is little wastage on feeds. Animals clear the fodder completely while feeding, but with commercial feeds like dust or pellets, a lot is wasted as the animal pours it while feeding.

“I used to get only a litre of milk from my cow, now I get up to 8 litres since I started using hydroponic fodder,” says a Mwiki farmer who has used hydro-ponic fodder from Mr Mbugua.

Mbugua adds that he has noticed sig-nificant weight gain in his animals. The pigs gain up to 0.5 Kgs in a week with hydroponic fodder. This rapid growth leads to more profit in a shorter time.

His venture has been so successful that he has decided to educate other farmers. His charges KSh500 per head to train farmers on Saturdays and has trained up to 10,000 recorded farmers from various counties in Kenya.

Mbugua is currently testing hydro-ponics on lettuce, kales, strawberry and coriander.

40The amount in per cent that Mbugua is saving in feeds.

Using hydroponic fodder as feed

Pig management

The underside of germinated fodder grown hydroponicallyPhoto| COURTESY

comes to around 65kg.

PigletsThe gestation period for pigs is three

months, three weeks and three days. The sow can furrow between 10 and 20 pig-lets, although Mr Wanyoike says 12 are preferable since they are born healthy and competition for mother’s milk is not so intense. Weight at birth is about 1.5kg. Piglets are fed on creep-a feed pal-atable by the small ones and easy to di-gest. This feed, however, is currently not readily available in the country since it is manufactured using special raw ma-terials.

weanersAt Kongoni Farm, the piglets are

weaned after 30 days, having attained about 7kg. They are separated from the mother and weaned too solid feed. This feed is specially made for young pigs that are yet to develop a system to digest feeds suitable for adults. At this stage, they are given starter feeds and the quantity is adjusted as they continue to gain weight. By the time they attain 25kg, they move to the next stage.

PorkerAt porker stage, the pig weighs 25kg.

Here it is fed with growers feed until it attains 60kg. The feeds here have lower protein content compared to what is fed to piglets and weaners.

BaconerBaconers are fed with finisher feeds.

This has lesser protein, but which is bal-

anced with energy -giving feed so that it can attain the desired weight quickly. The feed ingredients are made to help burn the fat but at the same time it adds weight.

Mr Wanyoike says weight and not age should guide a farmer when mov-ing a young pig from one stage to the next. Performance indicators are neces-sity and if they are not achieved at every stage, an intervention is necessary. He says there is no magic in rearing high quality baconer within seven months or even less. The secret lies in adhering to the feeding programme strictly and en-suring the feeds for a particular stage of

growth have the right levels of nutrition. Health of the animal, high standards of hygiene and deworming are other fac-tors that a pig farmer should ignore.

MarketsA farmer wishing to venture into pig-

gery need not worry about the market but how to rear quality baconers. The misconception that a pig gets fat by feed-ing on anything is misleading and will never give good results.

“Pig farming is proving to be one of the most lucrative undertakings for any serious livestock farmer. With the influx of Chinese and many people turning to pork as their preferred meat, it is the best time to venture into piggery,” Mr Wanyoike says.

Profit Margin Feeds remain the major input that

eats into profits. However, the cost is set to go down following interventions made in the 2016/2017 national budget. But Mr Wanyoike says even when the cost of feeds was high, a farmer was assured of 30 per cent from the invest-ment.

“It is easy to have grow a herd with just two sows. A pig gives birth twice a year, furrowing not less than ten pig-lets. The young ones are ready for sale after just six months and at a price of Sh14,000 per baconer, a farmer may de-cide to sell the 20 of them and pocket Sh280,000,” says Mr Wanyoike.

He says Farmers Choice pays 24 hours after delivery. It is easy for any farmer to become a contracted farmer after ful-filling some simple conditions set by the leading pig dealer in the country.

Pig management

>>>


July 2016 July 2016

42 43

Ask the Vet

Understanding why your cow may not be calving

Reproductive failure or infertility in dairy cattle is a common prob-lem that many farmers have to

deal with.Some have quit the venture because

their cows cannot come on heat; if they do, they do not conceive; if they con-ceive they do not carry the pregnancy to term and if they calve the offspring do not survive.

This is frustrating because if a cow does not calve, she will not produce milk, and as such, the farmer will not make money. Without calves there is no replacement stock and the herd has no future.

So, what is the cause? There are infec-tious and non-infectious causes of infer-tility. The problem might be the farmer, the inseminator or the cow. Unfortu-nately, more often than not, the cow is wrongly blamed.

Analysis of herd records reveal that low reproductive efficiency is mostly due to poor nutrition, poor estrus (heat) detection, poor insemination tech-niques and conception failure. These factors cause inefficiency either indi-vidually or in concert. The challenge is to identify them and institute manage-ment changes for improvement. Evalu-ation of the key stakeholders is an effec-tive approach in identifying the causes.

Farmer factorsPoor animal management, especially

in terms of nutrition and housing, im-pacts a lot on reproductive efficiency. Animals that have inadequate food and those fed on unbalanced, deficient feeds will either not cycle or, if they do, they will have silent heats (heat that shows no signs).

Equally, over-conditioned animals have similar challenges. Animals housed individually and on uneven, slippery floors do not manifest some classical signs of heat.

A farmer must be able to detect heat appropriately. This requires close monitoring of the animals. A cow on heat shows primary and secondary signs. Standing-to-be-mounted is the classical and primary sign that is the most reliable.

Animals should be socialised and observed at intervals of 20 to 30 min-utes. Secondary signs such as restless-ness, vaginal discharge, mounting other

cows, dirty flanks, decreased feed in-take and milk yield are unspecific and should be used as clue to watch the cow more closely to observe the standing-to-be-mounted behaviour.

Always call your inseminator im-mediately you see the first standing-to-be-mounted sign.

The animal should be inseminated 10 to 14 hours after this. A cow that comes on heat early in the morning should be inseminated late in the evening, while those that come on heat in the evening should be inseminated in the morning (AM/PM rule).

animal factorsSome animals are, at times, reproduc-

tively problematic. A cow in good body condition may not conceive because of some anatomic disorder, for example, blocked oviducts. Some breeds are also difficult to reproduce than others. Infec-tions are a major cause here. Diseases such as Leptospirosis, Brucellosis, Bo-vine Viral diarrhea, campylobacteriosis and many febrile diseases will not only affect conception, but will also cause abortions. Poor mothering ability of a cow will impart survival of the calf, es-pecially if she calves in isolation.inseminator factors.

With the privatization of veterinary services in Kenya in the 1990s the number of inseminators mushroomed, sometimes to the farmers’ detriment. Individuals with little knowledge on an-imal health soon became inseminators. This problem persists.

It is important to seek the services of a qualified inseminator. Quacks will walk into your farm carrying dead se-men because of poor storage. They will not thaw the straws of semen properly and the semen will remain inactive even on deposition. They may also de-posit the semen on the wrong place within the reproductive system.

If a cow returns to service after three inseminations, a farmer should try a second inseminator assuming that eve-rything else is perfect. All animal health service providers, including insemina-tors, are registered and regulated by the Kenya Veterinary Board. Farmers should always ask for their registration card.

Infertility can be caused by all these factors, among others. Farmers should consult a qualified veterinarian to un-ravel this web.

By Dr Nyaga Nderitu S The writer is Veterinary Surgeon and a Tutorial fellow at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at Egerton UniversityCONTACT: [email protected]

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The additional nutrients and energy contained in Biolys are available to the user as additional benefits. If this informa-tion is incorporated accurately into the raw materials matrix of the feed formulation software and the rations calculated by means of linear optimization, Biolys is preferred over HCl Lysine in all diets. Depending on diet composition and nutrient concentration, Biolys is superior to HCl Lysine by up to 20 %. This corresponds to diet cost savings of up to Ksh 85 per ton of feed, depending on species and supplemental lysine level. The preference for Biolys is due primarily to the provision of additional amino acids, phosphorus and energy from the bio-mass.

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Additional amino acids, what’s that all about?By allowing a very precisely controlled amount of fermenta-

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a healthy cow waiting to calve.PHOTOS |FILE


July 2016 July 2016

44 45

member to frequently douse the growing room with clean water to maintain adequate levels of moisture. Mushrooms sprout where there is moisture; they need that cold, breezy well-ventilated condition.Markets

Some farmers avoid mush-rooms simply because they have no idea where to take them after harvest. But experts say lot of market information is available though organisations dealing with this highly nutri-tious and lucrative fungi. The magic word is research.

“Mushrooms have a ready market, but it is only available to farmers who grow them continuously. If you produce one season, and stop supplying your customer as you wait for

the next crop to mature, you will have lost that customer. If you are consistent enough, with at least three growing rooms such that when one is fruiting, the other one is colo-nising and the last one is incu-bating, it will be very easy for a farmer to sustain a market,” says Ms Kiura.

Some farmers have no idea how lucrative mushroom farm-ing is. A kilo of mushrooms retails at an average of Ksh750 in supermarkets, meaning that a farmer can earn up to Ksh225,000 ($2205) from a 10 by 20 foot simple, mud-walled, grass-thatched house used as mushroom farm.

“A 10 by 20-foot house can hold 150 bags of growing mushroom. Each bag can pro-duce a minimum of two kilos. Mushroom farming requires very little space, making it an ideal agribusiness,” says the mushroom researcher.

Proper management

By waiKwa Maina

Although mushrooms can be grown easily on small patches of plant

waste and rake in more money than many other crops, many farmers in Kenya, and, indeed, in Africa, give these little fun-gi that look like tiny African stools, a wide berth.

Experts now blame the low supply in the market of this highly nutritious and me-dicinal product on a series of omissions, commissions and misinformation among grow-ers throughout the mushroom value chain. As a result, traders are forced to import the pro-duce.

Mr Patrick Chege, a senior technician in charge of mush-room research and production at the Jomo Kenyatta Univer-sity of Agriculture Technology (JKUAT), says there is little or no information (and lots of misinformation) on mushroom farming.

Very few Kenyans, he says, know that there are at least four varieties that they can easily grow or that some wild mushrooms growing on their farms could kill them if eaten!

Others wrongly believe that mushroom farming is a pre-serve of rich agricultural lands.

“We have mushrooms that do well in average weather, while others thrive in hot areas. At JKUAT we have developed a new variety called agaricus bi-forquis, which can grow at up to 26 degrees Celsius, making it ideal for farmers in extreme weather, including Thika, and the coastal region,” says the JKUAT mushroom expert.

More would-be farmers sim-ply take the wrong turn in the simple but delicate process of mushroom farming. According to Ms Susan Kiura, an agricul-tural programme manager at the Institute for Sustainable Development and Crime Pre-vention Centre (TISDEC), the training programme includes introducing farmers to mush-room farming.

Some of the common mis-takes that farmers make in-clude not sterilising the sub-strate – ready material used to grow them, which range from straw, maize stock, dry banana leaves, rice stock, sawdust, bean and coffee husks – prop-erly, poor ventilation in the growing shed, which is sup-posed to have easy circulation of oxygen, not doing enough market research before plant-ing, and poor packaging.

“The food that mushrooms require to grow are the remains from other crops. They must be dry matter not green. They include wheat straw, maize stocks, dry banana leaves, rice stocks, beans and coffee husks, among other farm residues, chopped into small pieces.

They are then socked in clean water overnight to sof-ten. The softened matter is then removed from water to drip excess water,” says Ms Kiura.

Wheat, rice or maize bran can be used to top up nutrition-al ingredients and the mixture packed in sterilised polythene bags for three to four hours.

Polythene enables a farmer to monitor colonisation. The first method of sterilising is heating for four hours and re-

Though mushrooms can be grown easily on small patches of plant waste and rake in more money than many other crops, many farmers in Kenya, give it a wide berth

Why you are not minting money from your mushrooms

Mushrooms have a ready market, but it is only available to farmers

who grow them continuously.

Types of Mushrooms available in Kenya

Oyster Mushroom (Plerotus)

Button Mushroom (agricus)

Shiitake Mushroom (Lentinula edodes)

Chinese Mushroom (ganoderma)

advantages of growing mushrooms

They take less space to grow

They grow so fast that you can harvest them in less than a month

They grow on readily available agricultural leftovers such as sugarcane, banana, leaves, fibres, maize stover, bean trash, and wheat straw, which can then be used as compost after you have harvested your mushrooms

They do not need fertilisers or chemicals.

Ms Susan Kiuria shows of some packed mushroomsPHOTOS|WAIKWA MAINA

moving to cool before plant-ing the mushroom seeds called spawns.

The second method is by chopping the dry matter and putting it into a sack in deep boiling water for up to three hours before drying it. Bran should not be added as it might lead to development of green mold. But a farmer can top up nutritional ingredients by adding residue from rice husks, cowpeas and maize cobs, which are rich in nitro-gen. However, they must be steamed before adding the lime and spawns.

These are then moved to a darkroom for 14 to 21 days for the mushroom to develop,

and transferred to the growing room. Re-


July 2016 July 2016

46 47

A number of counties in Kenya have also allocated funds to set up cassava pro-cessing plants.

But despite these efforts and invest-ments, the Food and Agriculture Or-

ganisation (FAO) paints a discouraging picture of cassava production in Kenya. The country does not feature among the 10 best cassava producing nations. Nige-ria tops the list followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Congo, Ghana, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Vietnam and India.

A report by the University of Nairobi’s College of Agriculture and Veterinary Ser-vices indicates that by 2012, cassava was grown on 77,502 hectares, with an an-nual production of 841, 196 tonnes, or 10 tonnes per hectare.

institutions such as the Kenya Agricul-ture and Livestock Research Organisa-tion, KALRO.

For Mr Gikonyo, the cassava is not just a tuber, it has become his lifeline. He earns Ksh375,000 a year, with minimum production costs of less than Ksh10,000. Besides feeding his family, he can now comfortably educate his two children. He is also constructing a commercial build-ing at Kambiti Market from his earnings.

The cassava future is bright, as more information on the crop is trickling down to the villagers. In 2013, KALRO intro-duced six improved varieties that are high-yielding and disease resistant. They include Siri, which matures in eight to 12 months, with a yield of 23 tonnes an acre; Shibe matures in eight to 12 months, with a yield of 28 tonnes per acre; Karembo, which, though not suitable for intercrop-ping, has the highest yield of 27 tonnes an acre, maturing in eight months.

A fourth variety, Nzalauka with the production capacity of 21 tonnes per acre, matures between six and eight months. It is suitable for intercropping. Tajirika matures within eight months with a production of 25 tonnes per acre and Karibuni 21 tonnes and matures in eight to 12 months.

Two years after KARLO developed the high-yielding cassava varieties suitable for most parts of the country, especially coastal, central, and western, Nairobi hosted a regional initiative where five African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Ugan-da, Mozambique and Tanzania), joined hands to tackle the deadly cassava viral diseases, by sharing information.

Dr Leena Tripathi, of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, which is involved in research and promoting improved cassava varieties, says: “Cas-sava is a very important food and income security crop for over 80 million farmers in the tropics.”

She advises farmers to adopt hardy va-rieties. “Sharing varieties that have been released or are near release from and across the five countries considerably reduces research and farmer adaptation time,” she adds.


Some people still think that cassava is a poor man’s crop, thanks to colonial perceptions that actively

encouraged the growing of exotic crops at the expense of time-tested traditional African ones.

But Mr Simon Gikonyo, from Kiteni Village in Machakos County, is not look-ing back, having discovered the rapidly emerging cash potential of this resilient tuber that, according to experts, might soon overtake other crops in demand and value.

“I can’t compare cassava farming with the cultivation of other crops such as maize and beans that are traditionally grown in this area,’ he says.

Like many parts of the world, Kiteni Village is bearing the brunt of global warming. The rainy seasons that used to be regular and predictable, come once in a while, or not at all. Sadly, however, villagers still faithfully cling to the same traditional crops they used to grow when the rains would never let them down − maize and beans. And often, they end up with shrivelled and withered crops under the scorching sun.

After years of trying, Mr Gikonyo de-cided he had had enough.

“I went to my farm one morning and saw that all my maize and beans had withered. Then I recalled that during our school days we had been taught that cassava is a drought resistant crop, and I wondered why I had been wasting my time and energy on others,” he says.

There was one problem, though. He had no idea where to find cassava seeds. All the farms around were full of drying maize stalks. Only after weeks of forag-ing through dead farms did he stumble on some cassava plants and he bought planting materials.

He had opened himself to village rid-dle, being openly told off about the crop.

“They dismissed me, saying I was free to get as many seeds as I wished as the seller did not value the crop,” he says.

A year after planting 20 seedlings, he proved the cassava naysayers wrong when he harvested three sacks of the tu-bers that fetched Ksh7, 500 (US$75).

While this might appear meagre, the maize and beans he had planted along-side the cassava produced only a little bundle of dry stovers.

“The earnings were a motivation and that’s why I started multiplying the seeds. I had intercropped cassava with maize and beans, but I got nothing from the latter,” he says.

Today, Mr Gikonyo has learnt more cassava tricks. With expert advice from agricultural extension officers, one bush can produce an average of 15 medium-sized tubers for sale at an average of Ksh450 (US$4.5) every year. He has 500 bushes, with a potential income of more than Ksh225,000 (US$2,250) a year.

His challenge is getting markets. Ex-ploitation by middlemen persists. Bro-kers thrive on the negative perception of the crop.

Farmers can get expert advice and quality seeds from authorised research

The future is cassavaCrop managment

The ‘poor people’s tuber’ is edging out traditional crops and becoming a cash cow

With proper agronomy, cassava

is more rewarding than many other cash crops. Farmers must seek expert advice and quality seeds from established and authorised research institutions

Sh7,500amount the farmer earned in his first cassava yield

newly improved varieties. They are high-yielding and disease resistant

Top: Mr Simon gikonyo cannot think of growing anything other crop than cassava, which has changed his lfe for the better.PHOTOS |SMART FARMER WRTIER

Variety Months it takes to mature

yield per acre in tonnes

Other comments

Siri 8 to 12 23

Shibe 8 to 12 28

Karembo, 8 27 Not suitable for intercropping

Nzalauka 6-8 21 Suitable for intercropping

Tajirika 8 25

Karibuni 8-12 21

Plant clean materials from reputa-ble breeders

The plant requires soft, well-prepared soil for easy penetration of roots and double digging is highly recommended

Recommended spacing is 1x1 metre square

Make furrows measuring one foot wide and about three quarters of a foot deep

Burry the cassava seed (cut-stem measuring about a feet) and wait for germination

Keep the farm weeds free To avoid excessive shade, prune to

retain a maximum of four shoots per plant

apply mulching

Health benefits Cassava is one of the highest value

calorie foods among tropical starch rich tubers

it has nearly twice the calories found in potatoes. a 100 gramme tu-ber provides 160 calories. The calorie value of cassava mainly comes from sucrose, which accounts for more than 69 per cent of total sugars.Other major complex found in cas-sava is amylose at 16-17per cent.

Cassava tubers are low in fats and protein compared to many cere-als and pulses, but it has more than other tropical food sources like yam and potato.

The tubers are free from gluten, (gluten-free starch is used in special food preparations for celiac disease patients)

young tender cassava (yuca) leaves are a good source of dietary proteins and vitamin K, which has a role in bone mass building. it also has an established role in the treatment ofalzheimer’s disease patients. it limits neuronal damage in the brain.

it is a moderate source of some of the valuable B-complex group of vitamins such as folates, thiamin, pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), riboflavin, and pantothenic acid.

it is one of the chief sources of some important minerals like zinc, magnesium, copper, iron, and man-ganese for many inhabitants in the tropical belts.

it also has adequate amounts of potassium (271 mg per 100g or 6% of Rda). Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that help regulate heart rate and blood pressure.

How to grow cassava


July 2016 July 2016

48 49

“We had to streamline everything, ensure that farmers were adequately trained, get the correct seeds at the right time, plant at the right time, apply good agronomic prac-tices and postharvest handling to ensure high quality grain. We had to create linkages guided by the demand, establish-ing our target processor preferences.”

East Africa Malting Limited, for example, would need grains with low tannin and high starch levels, while animal feed processors prefer protein rich sorghum grains, and this

was to help sustain the market chain, she says.

The project taught farmers the invaluable art of collective bargaining. Groups would employ similar practices at all levels of sorghum production, from the farm to marketing. The resultant bargaining power not only edged out middle-men, but also reduced costs of production for farmers.

“It is also an advantage for buyers who get the bulked grains, reducing their collection expenses. This translates into extra coins for farmers. Established buyers pay in cash or deposit proceeds directly into bank accounts for mem-ber, while some brokers and agents pay farmers after they receive payments from processors,” says the project direc-tor.

But the sorghum value chain has experienced its share of challenges, including lack of policies to promote and pro-

We still have a big sorghum deficit. There is a ready market,

which is far from being met.

By waiKwa [email protected]

Eight years since a campaign to promote the sorghum value chain was launched in eastern Kenya, the crop is creating mil-lionaires in the region. One of them is Ms Beatrice Nkatha, a

farmer and trader in Tharaka Nithi County. Ms Nkatha owns Sorghum Pioneer Agencies, a medium-sized en-

terprise, whose sorghum handling capacity and value had risen from 2,250kg per year in 2008 (worth Ksh22,500 or $225) to 10,000 tonnes a year by 2015, valued at Ksh330million ($3.3 million).

At the time of the launch by Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (Africa Harvest), she was managing a rented sorghum bulking store together with five other traders. They would buy in bulk and sell at the market in Meru Town, earning about Ksh100 (a dollar) for every 90kg bag of sorghum; but low production and high transport costs were eating into margins

The organisation, which was working with farmers to improve the marketing of sorghum, invited her to take part in business identifica-tion and development training. And that’s how her journey to becom-ing a sorghum tycoon began.

After the training, she was confident enough to start her own grain aggregation business, where, instead of selling sorghum in the local market, she became a vital link between smallholders and bulk trans-porters and the processors.

Sorghum Pioneer Agencies is now the main market link between small-scale sorghum farmers in Tharaka Nithi County and proces-sors. It has 15 employees serving over 10,000 farmers growing dif-ferent sorghum varieties. It has since diversified services to include provision of farm inputs, ploughing, linking farmers with financiers for farming loans, index-based insurance, sustainable markets, and training farmers on agronomic practices, as well as post-harvest han-dling.

Besides trading in the grain, Ms Nkatha says she now understands the dynamics of sorghum, to create enough rapport with fellow farm-ers and effectively lobby them into getting the best out of its value production chain.

After the training, Africa Harvest linked her to a network of sor-ghum farmers, who helped her to mechanise production and gave her the much-needed funding-skills that she now gladly shares with other sorghum farmers.

“The organisation helped us to identify the best equipment, and then helped me to secure a bank loan, which I used to buy a tractor and a thresher. These machines enabled the expansion of our busi-ness to include land preparation and threshing services for the small-holder farmers,” she says.

Exactly what makes the sorghum value chain development a suc-cess story? According to the Sorghum for Multiple Uses (SMU) pro-ject manager at Africa Harvest, Ms Doreen Marangu, it all boils down to proper timing, good practices and identifying markets.

Once condemned and listed among the abandoned crops, sorghum has defied all the odds, and emerged as a climate-smart and promising cash crop

The sorghum millionaires of eastern Kenya

Contract farming

Beatrice nkatha, a sorghum aggregator.Right, a sorghum crop and bottom Ms doreen Marangu, Project manager at africa Harvest exhibits sorghum based foods and drinks.PHOTO|COURTESY

tect the sector. According to the project manager, Kenya’s sorghum farming and marketing polices are wanting. The Sorghum for Mul-tiple Uses project, for example, was jolted by the re-introduction of a 50 per cent Excise duty on beer made from sorghum, cassava and millet.

“The undesired effect of this fiscal policy instrument was mani-fested rather quickly through price increases of beer and related products as well as the depressed demand for sorghum, especially as an input in brewing,” she says.

Africa Harvest had to quickly craft new strategies to increase consumption in the households, as well as at the community level such as in schools, hospitals, and special diets for diabetics; and promote the use of sorghum in alternative industrial processes, in-cluding substituting maize as a source of carbohydrates, especially in animal feed production.

But the organisation says there is still a big gap of opportunities in the grain value chain, enough to make more millionaires.

“We still have a big sorghum deficit. There is a ready market, which is far from being met. We have an annual demand of over 40,000 tonnes of sorghum grains for brewing. Over 200,000 tonnes are needed for animal feed production, yet farmers are not produc-ing even half of this,” says Ms Marangu.

The organisation has been lobbying more farmers to join sor-ghum farming and trade. This has seen sorghum production rise from less than a 500kg per hectare to an average of 1,600kg per hectare, during the two-phase SMU implementation period.

Africa Harvest and ICRISAT− a research institution – developed and implemented a project to establish an economically viable sor-ghum value chain targeting 60,000 poor rural farming communi-ties in semi-arid regions of Kenya and Tanzania; a target that they had exceeded by a 100 per cent at the end of second phase last year.

a crop of sorghum on Beatrice nkatha’s farm.

Sorghum is not labour inten-sive, has minimal costs of produc-tion and a guaranteed market.

it is a climate smart crop and a farmer will always be sure of some harvest. when there is water stress, it hibernates and rejuvenates when it rainswhen it’s injured or damaged by cows or pests, another shoot grows.

Hybrid varieties yield between 4.5 tonnes to 5 tonnes per hectare or 1, 822kgs to 2, 024kgs per acre depending on variety.

Open pollinated varieties including Kari Mtama, iESV 23010dL, and gadaM produce between 3.5 tonnes to 4.5 tonnes per hectare, or 1, 417kgs to 1, 822kgs per acre.

Production cost per acre is about KSh9, 390 (US dollar 93.9), equivalent to KSh8.69 per kilo.at an average of 1,400kgs of sorghum per acre, costing KSh25 per kilo, a farmer could pocket Ksh35,000, a net income of Sh25,610 (US dollar 256).

Planting: Sorghum can be inter-cropped with other legumes.an acre requires 3kgs of seeds

and weeding is done twice after planting.

at planting broadcasting method is not recommended. Plant rows 60 to 75 centimeters apart, and 20 centimeters from one hole to the other.

Use certified seeds instead of recycling the previous grain to the next season.

it can grow in conditions where soils have poor fertility and can thrive where maize fails.

Market: EaBL currently buys all low tannin white sorghum in Kenya and has a demand of over 40,000 Metric tonnes of grain per season animal feed manufacturers use about 600,000 MT of grain per year, 200,000MT of which can be substituted with sorghum.

Challenges: diseases and pests: Birds are the worst enemies of the crop. Head Smut, a disease and pests like stalk borers and shootfly.

Poor post-harvest handling, storage and processing at farm also cause losses.

Lack of land preparation equip-ment, cultural practices.

Some points on sorghum


July 2016 July 2016

50 51informing and inspiring farmers

She first planted about half-an-acre of lettuce and the crop flourished. What surprised even more is fact that she was using no farm inputs from the shops. The farm had several grave-like plots where she made her organic manure. She also had plas-tic containers, which she still uses to make folia fertilisers using Tithonia – a nitrogen and phosphorous rich shrub locally known as maua amalu-lu (Luhya), mauamakech (Luo), amaua amaroro (Kisii) and maruru (Kikuyu) − and rabbit urine.

Today, the ex-convict has put her past behind her, so much so that vil-lagers now call her ‘the professor of farming’.

“Agriculture is a challenging ven-ture but very addictive when one masters the necessary tricks,” she says.

She alternates lettuce, onion, and horticultural crops. On the sides, she has been trying her hand at coffee with amazing results. By last year, she was harvesting slightly over 2,000 kilogrammes from 80 coffee bushes, an average of 26kg per bush!

Neighbours, who initially treated her with suspicion, have begun going to her farm to learn from her. Soon, she was running an organic farmers’

group, sharing the wealth of knowl-edge learnt at the institute.

“Ex-prisoners find it very difficult to interact with other members of the community, even with their im-mediate families. Forming the or-ganic farmers’ group was not easy as people did not trust me. I am glad that my efforts have brought back my husband and children,” she says.

Farming has made her a better par-ent, too. Proceeds from her little farm has seen her son through a medical college and sent her last born daugh-ter for further training in Australia. If she had gone into farming early enough instead of banking, she says, she probably would never have land-ed in prison in the first place.

“But serving the jail term opened new doors for me,” she adds.

From this year, the TISDEC is set to offer diploma and degree courses in agriculture. The initiative’s main objective is crime prevention using agriculture, with offenders being trained in modern farming practices, value addition and marketing trends.

The institute is being upgraded af-ter years of using agriculture to re-habilitate and integrate ex-prisoners into their communities. Through the support of GLS, a German humani-tarian organisation, the institute will also broaden its scope to cover learn-ers and teachers in primary and sec-ondary schools.

Mr Eliud Ngunjiri, the director of the institute, says: “With the ap-proach of resources-oriented devel-opment, we saw a chance of targeting prisoners and ex-convicts and giv-

ing them skills to help them lead a crime-free life and also transfer the skills to the wider community as ex-tension workers. The people we train in prisons become peer trainers and later farmers’ trainers. They are now living a very positive life.”

On graduation, the trainees get a certificate of participation that is only recognised by the institute and farmers’ groups where the ex-pris-oners train. However, the institute has now registered with the Techni-

cal and Vocational Education and Training (TIVET) and other examin-ing bodies to ensure that certificates given to 108 trainees from Kenyan prisons will have them recognised as farmers’ trainers.

“The image of our penal institu-tions will be transformed from pu-nitive to correctional and learning institutions. Ex-prisoners will be viewed as people who fell and rose again,” Mr Ngunjiri adds.

By waiKwa Maina

After serving three years at Lang’ata Women Prison in Nairobi between 2012 and

2014, Ms Sheila Kiprono did not want to go back home.

The former banker simply did not know where to start. Coming from a wealthy family, she had risen through the ranks to an enviable position in the marketing department of one of the leading banks in Kenya – a com-fortable middle-class job¬, before her world came tumbling down.

“Honestly, I didn’t want to go home. I was certain that nobody would understand me. When you move from the middle class to a kun-guru (a prisoner), you feel rejected by everyone. It’s very traumatising,” she says.

Before walking out of prison, she had stumbled upon a visiting team from the Institute for Sustainable Development and Crime Prevention Centre (TISDEC), who sold the idea of farming to her.

After a six-month training in

prison and a year of mentorship and refresher courses at TISDEC, she was ready to start new life.

The farming lessons changed her life. Today, Ms Kiprono says she

would never go back to employment; and that for the first time in her life, she has found something fulfilling.

After she completed the entire training package, she put everything into her quarter-acre farm in Uasin Gishu County. First, she tried her hand at growing tomatoes and kales. The success of her project was soon the talk of the village. But what cap-tured the attention of the villagers most was lettuce, a crop that few had only seen in the local market.

after leaving prison, Sheila was afraid to go home for fear of rejection. Today, neighbours who initially treated her with suspicion, call her the professor of farming and have begun going to learn from her

Farming givingex-convicts a new lease of life

Honestly, I didn’t want to go home. I was certain that nobody would understand me.

When you move from the middle class to a kunguru (a prisoner), you don’t know where to go you feel rejected by everyone, its traumatising

Empowering

Celebrating graduation.

2000

26

amount in kilos that Sheila gets from the 80 coffee bushes that she owns.

amount in kilo that she harvest per coffee bush

Ms Susan Kiura, programme manager incharge of agriculture at TiSdEC.PHOTOS|WAIKWA MAINA

granduands receive cerificates from Julia Feldhausen.PHOTOS|WAIKWA MAINA


July 2016 July 2016

52 53

the cowshed. Some younger boys and girls will be harvesting some vegetables from the kitchen garden.

Although there is no one to supervise them, the youngsters move confidently in their chores. The kitchen garden is well-tended – no single weed, no matter how small escapes the eyes of these budding farmers.

The children have become quite at-tached to the garden. The farming project was initiated to enable the institution to support itself, but it has now become a homely environment.

“Our children are no different from those living with their own parents. In fact, as a mother, I can confidently say that they even know more and are more attracted to farming than many kids living with their parents on farms,” says Ms Nyambura.

Dairy cow farming and the kitchen garden save the institution more than Ksh2,000 ($20) per day, equivalent to Ksh60,000 ($600) per month, which would have gone to the purchase of milk and vegetables.

It also guarantees them at least one de-cent meal a day, in the wake of dwindling donor funding.

The home understands only too well that the youngsters will need to stand on their own feet and the earlier they learn life skills the better.

Take Young Davie (not his real name), for example, rescued from the streets at the age of six. Today, he could easily pass practical kale farming and management exams. He still does not know much about kale varieties, but knows almost every-thing from nursery management, trans-plant, and management to harvesting.

He says he has learnt a lot by simply watching and insisting that he tries

to do it himself. According to Ms Nyambura, the inter-

ests of the children vary and the manage-ment does not coerce any of them into do-ing what they do not like.

“Some of the children are interested in gardening while others are attracted to the cows. They manage the projects after school or during the weekends,” she says.

According to, James Maina, a student at Methodist University, who joined the home from the Rift Valley region in 2008, both boys and girls have shown a keen in-terest in farming.

“Almost each child wants to know how things are done at the farm. If you stay a little longer, you will see all of them come to the farm either individually or in groups. Here we all feel like we are at home, we live like a family,” he says.

With a little more training, he says, the youngsters can learn more farming life skills.

“We appeal to well-wishers to support us with training on how to get more out of our small farm. It will save the home thousands of shillings, which will be used to improve our welfare,” Maina adds.

The home also invites agricultural offic-ers to train the children on modern fram-ing practices.

At Huruma, they learn the basics a bit more, and they will not need to depend on the society all their lives.

“I can assure you that a good number of them will take farming as a serious busi-ness when they grow up. They only need someone to hold their hands at this early age, encouragement and exposure them to best farming methods,” says Maina.


What do you do when running a home for 81 orphans, who need to be fed every day? Send some

of them back to empty homesteads? Watch them sleep hungry?

How about teaching them how to farm?This is working for Huruma Children’s

Home, a centre started by the government but currently run by the Huruma local

parish of the Presbyterian Church, with the help of any kind soul that comes their way.

After watching the children sleep hun-gry a while back, the home’s director de-cided to teach her young protégés a few life skills.

“We went through very trying moments in the 1990s. It was a very painful experi-ence watching the children go to bed hun-gry, which meant that even their breakfast

was not guaranteed. Donors got tired of supporting the home due to the rising number of children. They could not cope, but we are today able to supplement what our supporters give to us through farm-ing,” says the home’s manager, Ms Nancy Nyambura.

Behind the kitchen is a garden and there is also an animal rearing unit. Here, you’ll find boys making silage after school, oth-ers feeding cows and a number cleaning

after watching the children sleep hungry a while back, the home’s director decided to teach her young protégés a few life skills, and today no one goes hungry and they feel more at home

Teaching orphans some essential farm-based life skills

Youth in agriculture

Clocwise: Children from the centre harvesting kales at the kitchen garden. Feeding the cows with grass. James Maina, trains a younger boy on silage making. Ms nyambura during the interview.PHOTOS|CORRESPONDENT

2,000

1990s

amount the dairy and kitchen garden save the institution daily

Period when the institution went through very trying times.

Some of the children are interested in

gardening while others are attracted to the cows. They manage the projects after school or during the weekends’


July 2016 July 2016

54 55

cellent against stretchmark’s, and it’s a good hair moistur-iser. The oil also eliminates dandruff, heals itchy scalp, strengthens hair and leaves it glow shiny as well as speeding up hair growth,” the director says.

Mr Philip Waweru from Ki-awara Village in Nyeri Town, who suffered severe burns on the face in a freak kitchen accident, says Ken’s oils gave him a new lease of life.

“I did not believe it was go-ing to work, but I decided to give it a try. In about a month, the scars and wrinkles had disappeared,” he says.

Ken’s family uses the same oil for cooking, but he has no plans to venture into cooking. He calls his products Extra Virgin Avocado Oils because they have no added chemical or preservatives. A litre of this oil retails at Ksh4, 000 ($40), but are packaged in 50ml bot-tles, each retailing at between Ksh150 ($1.5) to Ksh200 ($2)

Sixteen kilogrammes of ripe avocados, equivalent to about five pieces of avocado, gener-ate a litre of oil. The inves-

tor buys a piece of avocado at between Ksh5 and Ksh10, depending on size. His pre-ferred variety is hass avocado, which has more oil content, putting the cost of buying enough fruits for a litre of oil at Ksh800 ($8).

The other costs of produc-tion are minimal. He initially used a manual pressing ma-chine before getting power-driven equipment to increase capacity to 100 litres, from 20 litres per week. On average, the cost of production per litre cannot go beyond Ksh1, 000 ($10), inclusive of all ex-penses such as labour, collec-tion of fruits from farms and electricity bills.

The cottage industry began at Majengo, an informal set-tlement within Nyeri Town, where his uncle owns a ga-rage. But for easier expansion and safety considerations, the avocado oil processing plant was relocated to Nyeri Town. He has secured a loan to ex-pand his business to a pro-duction capacity of 500 litres daily.

He is setting up new equip-

ment on land donated by his parents after his business pro-posal was approved by a bank, which has enough money to expand the enterprise. His ul-timate goat to get equipment that can press more than 100, 000 litres a day. That will take between three and five years and will require a total invest-ment of about Ksh8 million (US$80, 000).

The 500-litre capacity equipment is enough to pro-duce animal feeds using avo-cado residues only (what is the nutritional value of these feeds and how much are they sold), effectively curbing wastage.

The young innovator stum-bled on two major avocado value addition contracts − one requiring 500 litres of av-ocado oils a week and another one 400 litres per week, be-sides his traditional markets.

Ken is keen on delivering on the contract. He has taken the plunge into avocado value addition and is already sourc-ing for avocado farmers to contract them. He plans to of-fer better prices to ensure that he has enough supply of the fruits throughout the year.

“I am aware of competi-tion outside there, but am not bothered. I have a team of professional marketers ready to hit the ground. Our product is already known and those who have used it can testify,” he says.

Asked why the production room is locked, Ken says: “Kenyans has very creative minds, and copycats are al-ways at work. A copycat does not need an hour to learn eve-rything and move into busi-ness,” he concludes.

I nearly gave up,

but my uncle kept encouraging me. I was more motivated when he narrated to me his personal experiences and frustrations in the jua kali industry.’

By waiKwa [email protected]

There are two doors adjacent to Kennedy Thumari’s main office

in Nyeri Town. One is labelled ‘Strictly no entry.’ Behind it, there is a gentle humming of equipment at work, accom-panied by a soft clattering of plastic.

Next to it is another door branded, ‘Keep your distance’. This one is also locked. Oc-

casionally, a worker emerges from one door carrying a sealed 20-litre container, and disappears behind the next door.

From his swing chair, Ken, as he is fondly known to his friends, is on to some very strange office work. His ‘in-tray’ is packed with different varieties of avocados, which he has to sample. The avo-cados are carefully arranged according to their source, and

Ken has to sample all of them to determine where to source for his next batch.

Welcome to Kenavo’s Ex-tra Virgin Avocado Oils, and meet its director, a 23-year-old innovator, who is living proof to the popular saying that age is nothing but a number, when it comes to in-novation.

The humming behind the first door is the sound of money minting out of avo-

cado − machines crushing and extracting avocado oils, which are then packaged for sale in beauty shops. Noth-ing goes to waste here. In the next room, the waste from the avocado, including the flesh, skin and seed are stored, to later undergo a process that will result in quality animal feeds.

Ken is the brains behind this innovative cosmetic in-dustry that makes two brands of avocado oils, Extra Virgin Avocado Oil and Virgin Avo-cado Oil. He studied aeronau-tical engineering at the East African School of Aviation in 2014, but was determined to venture into a completely dif-ferent kind of aerodynamics − avocado-dynamics.

His initial plan was to make herbal juice from tam-arind, but he later realised that getting raw materials was not easy. After consult-ing his uncle, he decided to give avocado oil extraction a try. His uncle has been in-volved in such trials for more than a decade now, including making extracting equipment at his workshop within Nyeri Town.

That was early last year. In June, he was finally able to extract 20 litres of oil from avocado. From then, it was all systems go.

“I nearly gave up, but my uncle kept encouraging me. I was more motivated when he narrated to me his personal experiences and frustrations in the jua kali industry. I owe my success to him. Together we did a lot of online re-search,” he says.

There was another chal-lenge — lack of a market.

He was then making about 25 litres of oil per week, and with the help of a friend, they began distributing the prod-ucts, and giving away most of it for free.

They visited beauty salons,

At only 23, he is already making his own brand of avocado oil

Innovation & Value addition

with his two innovative products for the beauty industry which have become a hit, Ken is causing waves and getting a good return

Kennedy Thumari in his office in nyeri. PHOTOS|WAIKWA MAINA

and barbers’ shops and gave out free samples for trials. “In a few weeks, they started contacting us, having experi-mented and approved our product. To be on the right side of the law, he sought a Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) certificate, which he got in mid this year.

He says that the oils are powerful antioxidants, con-taining vitamins A, E, D, C and B-Complex.

“It’s very effective against wrinkles and premature ag-ing of the skin, excellent for dry and damaged skin, ex-


July 2016 July 2016

56 57

markets. It is our responsibility to ensure that we achieve ISPM 26, which is spe-cific on creation of pest-free areas in a bid to regain lost international markets,” says Omusuya.

The jar like trap with a lid and punched holes on the sides to allow entry of insects is laced with a pheromone – a chemical produced and released into the atmos-phere by an animal that changes the be-haviour of another animal of a similar species.

“The pheromone attracts males within a radius of a kilometre, which rush to the trap thinking that they are heading to females for mating, but immediately die after getting into the jar, which has a poi-sonous chemical.

The death of males reduces fertilisa-tion of females, which lay 300 eggs in their lifetime, hence ultimate eradication of the pests,” explains Ms Jane Boit, the

Kephis office director in Eldoret.According to Ms Boit, her office has

taken the fight against fruit flies to farms in the region, with and an aim to create Pest Free Areas (PFA), to help local farm-

ers recapture the lucrative EU Market.Fruit flies are a quarantine pest in the

European Union market, which shuns imports from any region with a single reported case of infection, and effectively locks them out of the market that pur-chases at least 80 per cent of horticul-

tural export.With the European market further

frowning on the use of pesticides on crops sold to them, trapping pests is gain-ing popularity in many farms across Ken-ya; and giving a lifeline to farmers like Kiplagat and his neighbours.

”On the first day the traps were in-stalled on the mango trees they were quickly filled by dead fruit flies but the number has drastically reduced from about 500 insects a week last year, to be-tween zero and two insects per month currently,” says Kiprop Toroitich, who is among the scouts monitoring the traps on his father’s farm.

Kephis is confident that the traps will effectively banish fruit flies from local farms, graduating them into Pest Free Areas (PFAs).

“The statistics we have in the core ar-eas where we have been focusing on one large-scale farmer and those surrounding them to create a buffer zone are encour-aging. Our fruits would be regaining the EU and US markets this year,” he added.

plenish the product after experiencing hair and skin transformation,” he says.

Asked why the production room is such securely locked, Ken says “Kenyans has very creative minds, copycats are always at work. Besides the equipment, which remains the major challenge, there are other technicalities involved and a copycat does not need an hour to learn everything and move into business,” he concludes.

By KEnnEdy [email protected]

Mr Kiplagat was beginning to reap rewards from the 50-acre mango farm that he had pa-

tiently nurtured for more than four dec-ades ,when something started going ter-ribly wrong.

“Everything had been going on well, as the yields were good and consist-ently met local demand. I was preparing to start exporting directly. But before I could get access to the foreign market, I realised that something was not right − my fruits were dropping before ripening, while others were rotting mysteriously,” he says.

Things were about to get worse − his clients begun to shun his farm, com-plaining that his fruits looked attractive from outside but had insects inside and were rotten. It was a big blow for a man who quit the police service 46 years ago to go into farming.

“I could no longer sell up to 80 per cent of my yields, which rotted as I watched helplessly,” he says.

What he did not know then was that he now faced a little formidable enemy that − even if he went back to his old job − he could not shoot.

But the former police officer was not about to give up on a farm he sacrificed his policing job to nurture. Back in 1969, he had realised that the police service was not his calling, and, barely a year af-ter being recruited as a constable, he left to try his hand in farming.

Kiplagat is a self taught mango farmer. From his hometown of Iten, he had heard stories of successful mango farming in Tana River, Ki-tui, Embu and Machakos and headed to all these places to learn their secret. Armed with the lessons, he headed back home to plant improved mango varie-ties on 10 acres of land.

Just when, after meticulous learn-ing and planning, he owned 50 acres of

mango trees and was preparing to plant 10 acres more, disaster struck. Together with other farmers around the area, Ki-plagat realised that there were tiny pests lodged deep inside their crop of mangoes − one that defied all attempts to it smoke it out using insecticides.

But the ex-policeman had faced big-ger enemies before. He was not about to give in to this tiny pest whose name he did not know. Instead, he woke up one morning, picked six infected mangoes and marched with them to a local farm-ers’ training session organised by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) in Eldoret, seeking an expert view on how to fight this formidable en-emy off his farm.

“They (Kephis officials) took the mangoes to their laboratories

and later told us that our situation was manageable and pledged to assist us to overcome the pests through biological means. They brought us ‘magical traps’,” he says.

Finally, Kiplagat would identify his en-emy by name – Fruit Fly, a destructive pest that lays eggs on the flesh of fruits and vegetables, effectively planting seeds of destruction inside what, from outside, appears to be a perfectly healthy crop.

Once the eggs hatch, the resultant lar-vae begin feeding on the fruit from with-in, making it ripen prematurely, rot and, ultimately waste. They mostly attack as soon as fruit trees start bearing fruits, destroying a sizeable acreage.

Alfred Omusuya, the regional man-ager of Kephis Kitale branch that covers nine counties including Elgeyo Marak-wet, says the mango farmers’ woes with fruit flies prompted them to join other stakeholders like Smart Market Access Programme (SMAP) to launch an educa-tion campaign against the pest and begin installing and monitoring fruit fly traps in mango farms in the region.

“Fruit flies are major pests for many countries, as they can cause damage in fruits and restrict access to international

Pests & Diseases

Fruit flies almost drove ex-policeman out of his mango farmEverything had been going on well, until the ex-cop encountered a farm enemy he could not shoot

I realised that something was

going wrong on the farm − my fruits were dropping before ripening, while others were rotting mysteriously

a fruitfly on a mangoPHOTO|COURTESY

Mr Kiplagat examining his mangoes. The number of flies have reduced to about two a week in the traps. PHOTO|KENNEDY LUMWAMU

One of the pheromone traps used on Mr Kiplagat’s farm

500number of insects a week that were trapped on the farm at the beginning


July 2016 July 2016

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It’s educative, informative and entertaining: your ideal companionWe strive to keep you in step with the times and abreast with

technology in the world of agriculturePick up a copy and leaf through the inspiring,

well-written articles

Main Story

In the Kitchen

Coffee Flavour

Grains

Hugo Wood:

How central is taking over fishing without a lake

A two-hour journey into the world of the black forest cake

With a new variety and rising international prices, things are looking up for industry

Newly launched warehouse receipting system to offer reprieve to farmers

Portrait of a professional farmer

September-October 2010 Ksh200/-

i n f o r m i n g a n d e n t e r t a i n i n g f a r m e r s

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Lure of the strawberry

August/September 2011 Issue 06 Ksh200/-


Rabbit farmingFinding market has been a problem, yet there are many opportunities. How farmers are tapping it

Macadamia Doreb, the giant chicken

Find out how to grow these tasty, nutritious nuts and what they can do to the health of your bank account

It can weigh upwards of 7kg,

is resistant to diseases and

farmers are getting excited

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Feeding your animals rightWhat to feed your

dairy cows for best production

How Jane Komu has turned one-eighth of an acre into an income generating enterprise

smart farmer6.indd 1 8/8/2011 2:16:21 PM

Small is big

Purple tea

Vertical farms

Matu Wamae: How a dairy farmer

is raising 41 cows on quarter of an acre and

milking 250 litres

A new variety to colour your wallet and

add flavour to your health

If you cannot expand land on the ground go it upwards, is the new

thinking

Dairy farmer in his own class. Discover secrets of his success

In grass there’s goldFind out how some farmers are reaping

millions from growing and selling hay

February 2011 Issue 03 Ksh200/-


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January/February 2012 Issue 08 Ksh200/-

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Kanja’s secret

Amazing machinesThe new APS 480 Tucano

harvester does not disappoint

This 26-year-old man is stirring the dairy industry like never before and we tell you why

Quality Meat Products

SubsidizedÊcompoundedÊfeedÊavailableÊfromÊourÊKasaraniÊFeedÊMill.ÊIncreasedÊreimbursementsÊifÊyouÊdeliverÊyourÊownÊpigs

ForÊdetailsÊcall:ÊFrancisÊKamauÊ0725902400,ÊFrancisÊNyagaÊ0733973711,ÊJohnÊKiagoÊ0721605819

Enjoy New Increased Pig Prices from today!!WeÊpayÊcashÊonÊtheÊnoseÊforÊallÊyourÊpigs!

Quality Meat Products

SubsidizedÊcompoundedÊfeedÊavailableÊfromÊourÊKasaraniÊFeedÊMill.ÊIncreasedÊreimbursementsÊifÊyouÊdeliverÊyourÊownÊpigs

ForÊdetailsÊcall:ÊFrancisÊKamauÊ0725902400,ÊFrancisÊNyagaÊ0733973711,ÊJohnÊKiagoÊ0721605819

Enjoy New Increased Pig Prices from today!!WeÊpayÊcashÊonÊtheÊnoseÊforÊallÊyourÊpigs!

For details call: Francis Kamau 0725902400, Francis Nyaga 0733973711, John Kiago 0721605819

We pay cash on the Nose for your pigs!Sell your pigs to the most reliable and

established pork processorSubsidized compounded pig feed is available from our Kasarani Feed Mill

BananasDairy goats

Silkworms

This is just how valuable an

investment growing tissue culture

bananas is

All you wanted to know about these animals

How young people are weaving themselves afortune by rearing them


smart farmer8.indd 1 1/20/2012 8:22:27 PM

Passion fruit coup

Bamboo

Rabbit farming

Male calves

George Kili

Why fruit is upstaging maize and wheat in North Rift

You can wear it, eat, drink and build with it while earning handsomely

Learn about new craze where farmers are reaping returns; its market and challenges

Why farmers in central are killing them soon after they are born

Form Two dropout whose farm has become a magnet

even to foreigners

December 2010 Issue 02 Ksh200/-


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Dawda HasmukhFrom the cotton fields in Ndere

in rural Nyanza, he has grown into a household name

HydroponicsIn Naivasha, some farmers are growing crops

without soil. Find out how and why

April 2011 Issue 04 Ksh200/-


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‘facebook’ farmers

No-till farming

Maize at its best

They are young, confident and tech-savvy, but they do not mind muddying their boots

Ploughing soil is not the only way to grow your crops, you can do without it or minimum

While most farmers harvest 15 to 25 bags of maize per acre, farmer does 50.

April - May 2012 Issue 09 Ksh200/-

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SPIRULINAThe UN has declared

it the ‘food of the future’, and it is

known to contain the most remarkable

concentration of nutrients found in any

food or plant


SUPER FOOD

Find out how a young farmer is using the internet to sell his produce

Google it!Stevia the sweet crop that is causing a buzz in western Kenya

Sugar leafFrom the marathons and gold medals abroad, a sip of mursik crowns the welcome

A tonic for stars

smart farmer9a.indd 1 4/12/2012 3:23:35 PM

August 15th - October 5th 2013 Issue 16Ksh200/-


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He had lost all hope in life but is now a thriving farmer with big expectations

How this magazine changed me, says former alcoholic

Young school dropouts earning a fortune and inspiring others to farms

Learn more about these birds that are raising a lot of interest

Tomato millionsQuailsFind out how farmers are earning double from low bark grafted mangoes

Mango grafting

smart farm16e.indd 1 8/14/2013 8:18:07 AM

September - October 2012 Issue 11 Ksh200/-

Despite losing all his property during the 2008 violence, Owiti picked himself up and is back on track


Why this flower farmer has every reason to smile

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Down in scenic Kerio Valley farmers are making good business

MangoesHe has defied his community’s belief’s and made them part of his life

Protecting owls

Discover how two brothers find prospertity in growing potatoes

April - May 2014Issue 18Ksh250/=


Sweet pepper

SPECIAL LAUNCH EDITION

Milking robots Cash cowFind out how less than one quarter of an acre will fetch Sh2.4m for Nyeri farmer

They ‘know’ the cow by name, how many litres it should produce, what nutrients it needs...

Mango variety turns rocky, abandoned place into a paradise

The digital farmer

How Daniel Kimani is using technology

to do on a 10th of an acre what is done on more than one acre

and reaping huge benefits

sf18f.indd 1 4/3/2014 12:24:22 PM

January - February 2013 Issue 13Ksh200/-

How to grow, manage and market this

money-making plant


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How about making some extra money while your produce is safely stored

Farmer who is breeding fish in dry Kajiado and doing good business

Growing these fruits has never been more lucrative, especially using TC technology. Discover their value and how to plant them

Warehouse receipts Fish farming

Tissue culture bananas

A week in the life of a farm manager

Farm Diary

Mushrooms

August - September 2014Issue 20


Tomato ‘al-shabab’ No time to farm? New mushroomTuta absoluta has landed in Kenya and is ravaging tomato farms, turning dreams to waste

Have you be thinking of becoming a farmer but have no time or land? Talk to Maingi...

A new variety for warmer areas has been developed by Kenyatta University

Tree tomato variety with unbelievable returns

Find out how you can make money from the lucrative Red Oratia fruit

Show us your John DeereSend us a photo of your old or new John Deere

products and the best selected photos will win a set of John Deere branded clothing. See inside for details.

Ksh250/= | UGsh 7,450/=TZsh 4,750/= RWF 2,000/=


Coffee and rabbits Money on trees Turkey farmingRabbit urine therapy that can cut farm costs by more than 50 per cent

Money does grow on tree seedlings. Find out how an environmentalist is harvesting it

From meat, eggs to ornaments, this great bird has lots to offer

It takes only two years to start fruiting, is good for export, easy to grow and

fetches great returns



Secrets of the Hass avocado

October - November 2014Issue 21Ksh250/= | UGsh 7,450/=TZsh 4,750/= RWF 2,000/=

November - December 2012 Issue 12Ksh200/-

It is nutritious, does not need much space or water to grow and takes only six to 10 days to be ready


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Why feed prices are putting the industry in a foul mood

Did you know you can get 10 calves from one cow in a year? Find out.

Small-scale farmers are to benefit from a deal to provide them with biological control products. Pg6, 26-29

Poultry FocusEmbryo Transfer

Trianum launch and partnership

Hurry, book for your chance to visit other successful farmers

Smart Tour

Could this be the solution to fodder woes?


June - July 2014Issue 19


Joywo Rabbit markets ArrowrootsHow women farmers are benefitting from this organisation that is bringing them riches

Finally, there’s money to be made from the rabbit which has found its place. Find out where

This usually ignored crop is lucrative, has market and is packed with nutrients

Even in semi-aridYatta millions

are being made Discover how Bishop Masika is helping to turn this rocky

place to green gold and how residents are laughing all

the way to the bank.



Ksh250/= | UGsh 7,350/=TZsh 4850/= RWF 2,200/=

June - July 2012 Issue 09 Ksh200/-

A single visit to the showground that changed Athanas

Tuiyot’s world


Ex-journalist who grows onions for

a living

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Smart Farmer Nominated for

‘Media of the year’ Africa Business

Reporting Awards by Diageo Africa

With only half an acre of land, urban farmer earns more than most CEOs

Captain of IndustryDiscover the different and unique types he keeps and for what purpose

Bird farmerSo much to learn from here crowned by the Esada conference

Dairy focus

December 2013 - January 2014 Issue 17Ksh200/-


How farm is cashing in on Nairobi’s healthy tastes

From only 170 trees he is expecting about Sh700,000.

Organic farmingCoffee successHow young Kenyans are making quick money on the farm

Youth in agriculture

Quail rearing is lucrative businessKenyans are rushing to buy the birds for eggs or breeding and they are making a killing from the business


Contact us on:Tel: 0720763190, 0725153313, 0724446647

Email: [email protected] [email protected]

Follow us on Facebook: smartfarmer magazineAlso check out our website:

www.smartfarmerkenya.com


July 2016

60

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