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    white flies Nathan Mala Kiambu By Laban Robert.JPG

    In cut­ting down pesti­cide ap­plic­a­tion and the ac­cru­ing costs in pro­duc­tion, one farmer suc­ceeded in vend­ing off the pests by grow­ing onions around his green­house to­ma­toes in the last sea­son.

    Lari Sub-county farmer Nathan Kimeu was im­ple­ment­ing an idea he learnt from the In­ter­net that onions’ smell can repel some crop pests like aph­ids.
    “I found out that some crops are good bio­lo­gical con­trols of pests, which at­tack com­mon com­mer­cial foods such as chil­lies, cap­sicum, Kales, cab­bage, to­ma­toes, among oth­ers. I also leant that green­house ro­ta­tion with non-vic­tim crops like cori­ander can break the li­fe­cycle of the en­emies,” he said.
    When he grew onions in the peri­phery of his 8m by 30m green­house, which had to­ma­toes as the main crop.
    In­deed on close scru­tiny of the to­ma­toes on the out­er­most lanes- those neigh­bour­ing the onion sol­diers- were free from the aphid at­tack for the en­tire sea­son.
    Aph­ids are pest that drill into the leaves of crops. They suck the sap with the nu­tri­ents, caus­ing severe pro­duce losses due to un­healthy crops.
    The leaves curl to the be­cause of the heavy in­fest­a­tion from the un­der­side. This con­di­tion re­duces the sur­face area for pho­to­syn­thesis, the food mak­ing pro­cess in plants.
    Be­cause of the ex­trac­tion of the nu­tri­ent-rich sap, some leaves turn yel­low due to mal­nour­ish­ment, which also re­duces pho­to­syn­thesis res­ult­ing from the ab­sence of the green pig­ment.
    This neg­at­ively af­fects the over­all pro­duc­tion.
    Ap­plic­a­tion of chem­ic­als in the con­trol of the pests is not only ex­pens­ive as is re­quired in­ter­val in­ter­ven­tions. But the onions are a one-time cost that de­fends the crop until the end of the sea­son and still be sold along­side the main crop, Kimeu said.
    “Or­ganic farm­ing is gain­ing fame as food-re­lated dis­eases rise. I am start­ing small and with such pos­it­ive res­ults, I hope to go or­ganic to meet the small but healthy eat­ing mar­ket,” he said.
    The Ki­ambu County farmer in­tends to grow the ‘sol­diers’ along the rows of the to­ma­toes to boost the de­fence while re­du­cing the cost of pro­duc­tion.
    Al­though he can­not quantify the money saved from the bio­lo­gical con­trol of the pests, the farmer says his main pesti­cides ap­plic­a­tion was spe­cific on other pest such as white flies and mites.

    READ ALSO:To­mato farmer lights lan­tern at night to trap more fruit flies

    READ ALSO: Yel­low stak­ing strings at­tract to­mato pests, ex­pert warns farm­ers

    READ ALSO: New dis­ease tol­er­ant to­mato can earn over Sh2­mil­lion in 75 days


    The to­ma­toes, however, never per­formed well to­wards the peak of har­vest­ing des­pite re­duced at­tack from the pests.
    Kimeu at­trib­utes the de­cline to the over­growth of the roots in the bags, which he says, hindered uptke of water and nu­tri­ents. The mul­tiply­ing roosts were scorched by the poly­thene bag, des­pite ap­plic­a­tion of water be­cause of the high tem­per­at­ures dur­ing the dry spell.
    The crop pro­tec­tion pro­grammes star­ted from seed­lings age. He grew the seed­ling in a soil­less media which helped in con­trolling other pests like nem­at­odes.
    This also gave a strong vigour in growth of the to­ma­toes since there was min­imum dis­turb­ance of the rots dur­ing trans­plant­ing.
    He also steamed the soil to kill dis­ease caus­ing patho­gens like nem­at­odes.
    “I ex­pec­ted to har­vest at least 30 crates of 32kg per week for eight months. But it never happened. The loss is a gain for me; I have learnt how to do it bet­ter in the next sea­son,” Kimeu said.
    Com­mon crop pests such as mites, leaf miners, aph­ids, white flies, among oth­ers do not at­tack cori­ander. This makes it one of the best ro­ta­tional crops after har­vest­ing the sus­cept­ible vari­et­ies. Grow­ing the cori­ander in a green­house breaks the li­fe­cycle of such pests, there­fore re­du­cing their pop­u­la­tion ahead of the next sus­cept­ible crop.

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    Sukuma kenin maingi nakuru by laban robert.JPG

    Ap­plic­a­tion of mulch­ing and or­ganic ma­nure has helped a kales farmer cut the ir­rig­a­tion fre­quency be­sides en­abling him de­liver kales to the mar­ket con­sist­ently even on dry sea­sons.

    On dry sea­sons, Kevin Maingi may be re­quired to ir­rig­ate the kales in his one-eighth of an acre daily or after one day.

    But the dis­cov­ery of mulch­ing and use of bio­gas slag have slashed his pro­duc­tion costs on fer­til­iser to zero and ir­rig­a­tion to less than half.

    The Na­k­uru County farmer, who har­vests at least one tonne of the sukuma wiki every week from the small piece of land at Lanet, is en­joy­ing a con­stant mar­ket s the ve­get­able’s sup­ply shrinks dur­ing this dry spell.

    One kilo­gramme of sukuma wiki is earn­ing him Sh50.

    From the bio­gas slag of their eight cows, the farmer makes or­ganic ma­nure by mix­ing the ‘waste’ with farm or­ganic ma­nure in pit. With the high num­ber of mi­crobes in the dung, the green mat­ter is worked upon into rich or­ganic fer­til­iser.

    To­gether with other green re­fuse such as grass and plant leaves, Maingi has covered the soil around the ve­get­ables.

    “I have re­duced the in­ter­vals of ir­rig­at­ing the ve­get­ables to twice or some­times once per week with this rich mulch. The fer­til­iser is also rich in vari­ous nu­tri­ents from the di­verse crops. I no longer rely on com­mer­cial fer­til­isers, which do not last in the soil after the first sea­son,” he said.

    Mulch­ing pre­vents dir­ect sun­light into the soil. Apart from smoth­er­ing the ger­min­at­ing weed, it pre­vents los of water as a res­ult of wind and heat from the sun.

    As the mulch rots to­gether with the or­gan­isms in the or­ganic fer­til­iser the farmer added, the soil tex­ture and water hold­ing abil­ity are im­proved too.

    The in­ter­spaces among the kales is also re­duced from the nor­mal 45cm has been re­duced to 30cm. Apart from strangling weed, the can­opy of leaves also con­trols dir­ect sun­light hit­ting the ground to evap­or­ate the little mois­ture avail­able after ir­rig­a­tion.

    READ ALSO: Plastic mulch drastic­ally re­duces pro­duc­tion costs

    READ ALSO: Or­ganic fer­til­iser doubles onions, helps farmer pen­et­rate new mar­ket

    READ ALSO: Ve­get­able prices double in Nairobi

    When the soil struc­ture is in­tact, erosion is also dis­mal.

    For months that rains dont fall in Na­k­uru, and in­deed most parts of the coun­try, the farm­er has never failed to de­liver the kales to his mar­ket within the town as well as those, who come to the farm.

    The farmer rarely uses mech­an­ical weed­ing. This has not only slashed the weed­ing costs in the pro­duc­tion chain, but also re­duced water loss due to ex­pos­ure of the soil to dir­ect sun­light. He pills the few weeds by hand.

    With mulch­ing, re­duced soil dis­turb­ance in weed­ing, ad­di­tion of the ma­nure, the colon­ies of the soil mi­crobes is grow­ing.

    The elim­in­a­tion of fretil­isers in the pro­duc­tion chain is part of the farmer’s longterm vis­ion of going or­ganic to meet the rising mar­ket.

    “The emer­ging mar­ket of or­ganic products is of­fer­ing more than four times the cur­rent price so the agro-chem­ical-de­pend­ent goods. That is where money is and I am mov­ing to­wards that be­cause few farm­ers are there already,” he said.

    And with time, the farmer hopes to re­duce pro­duc­tion costs by less than half and ex­pand the mar­kets for his or­ganic products.

    To­gether with other youths, Maina Muchai and Paul Ay­ieko, Maingi has formed an ag­ribusi­ness solu­tion com­pany help­ing farm­ers in pro­duc­tion as well as loc­at­ing mar­kets.

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    images 2

    Newcastle disease is the major cause of death among local chicken killing about 90 per cent of the affected birds.

    According to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Newcastle Disease is a major constraint to indigenous chicken productivity in Kenya and often causes 80 per cent to 100 per cent mortality in unvaccinated flocks.

    Related article: Newcastle resistant chicken breed, which also produces more eggs now in the market

    Research by KALRO acknowledges that vaccination should be done under controlled conditions, which are easy to learn and apply. Heat kills the virus, so vaccines should be kept in a cold place at 4°c (maximum period: I month), or at -20°C in a freezer (up to two years).  A vaccinated chicken will not contract Newcastle disease for six months.

    Related article:Farmers play extension officers, halving Newcastle disease and earning from it

    Chickens suffering from Newcastle disease show nervous signs, diarrhoea and die in large numbers. The disease is spread by sick birds usually brought in from the market or by other birds from the neighborhood. Visitors, dogs and wild birds can also spread the disease.

    Farmers can get vaccines from a chemist's shop or a veterinary office.  There are various types of vaccines which include I-2 ND Vaccine which is available in chemist's shops or veterinary offices.

    Chicks should be vaccinated one month after hatching. Adult birds need to be vaccinated every 6 months or 2 weeks before an expected outbreak. It is advisable to vaccinate in the evening when birds are easy to catch and only healthy birds should be given doses. Sick birds should not be vaccinated.

    Requirements

    • Vaccine
    • 5 ml plastic syringes
    • Disposable needles
    • 10 Cc sterile distilled water for every 100 doses
    • Plastic cool flask

    Vaccine dilution

    • Draw 4 cc of sterile water into the syringe.
    • Lift the metal cap off the vaccine bottle.
    • Pierce through the center of the rubber top.
    • Do not apply pressure because the vacuum in the bottle might suck in the water.
    • If there is no suction your needle might be blocked, or air has leaked into your vaccine bottle
    • If air has leaked into the vaccine bottle do not use it.
    • Mix water and vaccine by shaking.
    • Tear off the metal cap, remove rubber top.
    • Draw all vaccine into the syringe.
    • Put the mixture into the 6 cc distilled water.
    • Mix vaccine by shaking.
    • By now you have 10 cc vaccines ready for use.
    • Store in ice and use Within 2 hours.

    How to administer the vaccine

    • Fill syringe with 1 cc (1 ml) of the vaccine at a time.
    • Hold the syringe between your first and second fingers.
    • With your other hand secure the chicken under your arm-pit
    • Secure the head and administer a drop in each nostril or eye
    • Place the chicken away from the rest.
    • Birds of all ages receive the same amount of vaccine.
    • At the end of vaccination, count the chickens to make sure you have vaccinated all of them. • If you face any difficulty, consult your local veterinary office.
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    1. Fodder grass farming helps supplement farmer incomes
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    Page 18 of 176

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