Smart farms

: 09 February 2022; Hits: 3909

WFP warns 13M people face severe drought in Kenya, Ethiopia & Somalia

DROUGHT ETHIOPIA

By George Munene

The Word Food Programme (WFP) has warned that more than 13 million people across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia face severe hunger as the driest conditions in decades spread a devastating drought across the region.

This owes to three consecutive failed rainy seasons leading to crop failure and an abnormally high rate of livestock deaths. This communities have been left unable to grow, sell and consume nutritious foods.

“The statistics that I am seeing suggest that this is the driest this region has been in 40 years,” says Dunford. Does it translate to the worst drought in 40 years? “Well, it depends how you want to measure. In 2011 there was a drought that killed 250,000 people in Somalia. We’re not there yet.”

“Droughts in the Horn of Africa are becoming more frequent and severe and are one of the key drivers of hunger across the region, devastating livelihoods and forcing families from their homes. These impacts reinforce the need for immediate humanitarian action and the importance of building the resilience of communities for the future,” warned Michael Dunford, WFP's Regional Director for Eastern Africa.

Pastoral and farming communities across southern Ethiopia, northern Kenya and south-central Somalia have been hardest hit. The lack of rains is also fuelling intercommunal conflicts as families are forced to move in search of water and pasture.

An estimated 2.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and the WFP aims to provide urgent food assistance to more than 890,000 people in the worst affected counties. The Kenyan government declared the drought a national emergency in September 2021. WFP will also extend malnutrition treatment and prevention programmes for women and children as well as microinsurance support for smallholder farmers.

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: 19 January 2022; Hits: 5706

Meru dairy farmer banks on genetics to turn profit as feed costs rise

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By George Munene

With a 70 kilogram of concentrate dairy feed setting farmers back around Sh2,800, the gnawing question for most dairy keepers is how to still turn a profit in an industry whose production cost is increasingly exorbitant.

For Gordon Chui, a dairy farmer at Igoji, Meru County, the answer lies in having a good foundation stock with high genetic potential.

His herd consist of nine milking cows each averaging 23.6 litres each. His he says is an agribusiness, that does not run on by the book modern feeding methods. His heard feeds on 60 kilograms of dairy meal daily mixed in with Napier grass offered ad libitum and a smattering of hay.

“Farmers often correlate expensive and exotic feeding regimes with production, neglecting the generic potential of their heard. A cow fed on a moderate to high plane diet producing less than 15 litres of milk will leave you out of pocket and disappointed,” he says.

Chui used to make his own dairy meal which was far cheaper to produce and nearly doubled his current output. “That cow, he says pointing to a Friesian and Ayrshire cross, gave me up to 42 litres which is all the way down to 27 litres now, the Holstein Friesian next to it is down 13 litres to just 25 now that we are forced to purchase ready made feeds.”

As his dairy meal is purchased in bulk, he buys a bag for Sh2,300. In a month he buys Sh60,000 worth of feeds, Sh10,000 worth of hay in oats or Rhodes and pays a salary of Sh10,000 to his farmhand. With the buying price of a litre of milk at Sh40, despite the rising cost of feeds, this still leaves his business in the black. Napier grass is sourced from his one acre and change of farmland.

Since September of last year dairy meal constituents have gotten too expensive or have disappeared from local markets altogether. “Sunflower seed cake shot up from Sh1,000 to 2,400 for a 50kg bag. Canola meal was Sh55 a kilogram, now you’ll be lucky to find it in markets for Sh70. The price of soybean has doubled to about Sh120 a kilogram and it’s quality is subpar as is that of wheat bran which is often adulterated with rice polish. Pollard’s price has also ticked up from Sh22 to about Sh30 a kilo.

A graduate in animal health and production from Chuka University, he is his own on call vet which further cuts his operational costs.

Gordon Chui: 0711928111

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: 19 January 2022; Hits: 5367

37 year expert sets up 2 acre coffee farm as perfect retirement plan

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By George Munene

Since 1984 Paul Muthuyia has been rearing coffee; from the heady 80s to the lean 90s he’s seen it all; now in retirement, the veteran farmer based in Equator, Meru, earns over one million shillings yearly from his 1770 coffee trees on two acres of farmland.

While he previously juggled dairying with coffee rearing, now in his 60s, he’s opted to exclusively deal in coffee, setting it up as his retirement plan given its relatively limited demand in upkeep once established.

While most other coffee farmers with much larger tracts of land struggle to turn a profit, his coffee farm is a testament to his over 37 years of experience in the crops husbandry. Every tree seems like a facsimile of the next with 30 nodes each with at least 300 beans which yield between one and one and a half kilograms a tree annually. With each tree holding at least 40 branches, he harvest from each at least 50 kilograms of cherry.

“Since 1976 when a loaf of bread cost 50 cents and we were selling a kilogram of coffee for four shillings and fifty cents, as long as the price of a kilo of coffee is at least equivalent to that of a loaf of bread, I know I’ll turn a profit,” Paul said.

30 percent of his gross income goes into meeting overheads leaving him with a healthy chunk of change.

His main one acre farm holds 1,000 trees of Ruiru 11 coffee bushes. The strain is hardy requiring little fungicide application. He has a further 770 trees of SL28 on different plotlets. The variety was developed by Scott Laboratories (SL), between 1934 and 1963 and is famed for its prolific production and weighty beans owing to its thicker bark. It is also the more marketable vintage.

“Part of the reason coffee prices slumped in the 90s after the booming 70s and 80s owed to shortcuts taken by farmers in the crops establishment which greatly reduced the quality of Kenyan coffee,” Paul explains. Having recently retired as a director of Kianjuri Farmers Co-operative Society, he bore witness to this.

Coffee establishment is the most crucial phase in coffee growing with minor missteps at this early stage having major implications down the line. “Once you mess up during planting, getting optimum yield or quality from your coffee is impossible, it is also costly trying to undo this,” he counsels.

While the Coffee Research Institute (CRI) recommends a 6×6 feet spacing between holes, Paul opts for 9×9 feet SL recommended spacing. From experience, this allows for optimum light and air infiltration in his crop.

Given that coffee is a tap rooted crop, he prepares a 3×3 foot hole filled intermittently with mulch, manure and top soil to encourage root growth. This is done before the onset of long rains to increase survival rates.

His daily crop husbandry routine kicks off at 10 am when he conducts daily scouting. This helps arrest any onset of disease. Prevention is especially critical given his coffee is almost exclusively organically grown.

For an in-depth breakdown on coffee establishment, selection, planting, etc., from an expert farmer with 37 years of experience in coffee farming, sign up to part 1 of our Coffee growing guide that will be hosted by Paul Muthuri here: Coffee growing – Part 1

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