Smart farms

: 26 October 2022; Hits: 2430

Lighting kerosene lantern helps tomato farmers control fruit flies

images 3 1 In boosting crop protection against pests for 24 hours, Derick Nyambane in the last season resorted to lighting a kerosene lantern at night in his half an acre tomato field as a way of luring pests to death traps.

Beside the lantern is a fruit fly trap device.

Nyambane used a metarhizium 69-filled lure, which is a biological pest control device that infects fruit flies with a fungus that kill them within five days.

The device emits sex pheromone-like fumes that attract fruit flies, which ‘think’ their partners are in the kit and they move there for mating.

Once they enter there, the metarhizium 69 fungi attach themselves onto the bodies of the pests and start growing, according to Real Integrated pest Management Ltd expert Isaac Guda.

As they fly out to their hiding areas, they share the fungi to their ‘brothers and sisters’.

Insects are generally attracted to light. Given that at night, the lantern is the only strong source of light, they move to it.

“The pheromone trap is effective during the day because the device is yellow and can be seen from far. It indeed, attracts many fruit flies. Given that I have light at night, they are attracted to it and upon reaching there, they are distracted by the pheromone lure. When they enter the trap, they start their journey to death,” the Nyamira County farmer, who harvested tomatoes in December, said.

Metarizium 69 is one of the biological control methods being advanced to farmers by companies like Real Integrated Management Ltd, Thika, in reducing use of chemicals in pest control.

Most insects are attracted to bright colours like yellow and blue. After burning for a while, the light from the lantern turns yellowish, therefore, the receptor in the insects are alerted. The pests are tricked that it is daytime, therefore, they need to go and feed.

Metarhizium 69 fungi grow and multiply on the body of the fruit fly. The fungus extracts nutrients from the flies, which die in three to five days.

Guda, who is an agronomist and an environmental expert, said one requires four of these lure devices in every half of an acre for effective control of the fruit flies.

In a better utilisation of the light, the farmer also can include the yellow and blue stickers to mechanically trap other pests like thrips and aphids.

Fruit flies are notorious after flowering of mangoes, tomatoes and other fruit.

They piece the skin and lay eggs in the flesh and at the maggots grow, they cause premature and false ripening, rotting and dropping of the fruits.

The one litre lantern was on until mid night. And it consumed about half a litre for that period. Nyambane at times skipped days after realising the infestation was min

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: 25 October 2022; Hits: 1532

Farmers look to detergent to combat deadly fusarium wilt

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Farmers have turned to laundry detergents in taming deadly fusarium wilt disease that affects potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, and their vegetable relatives.

Patrick Njenga, a Kiambu County Irish potato farmer, has successfully used the Jik detergent to clear fusarium wilt from his three quarter an acre after registering losses after a growing season.

“I learnt from other farmers who had experimented and found that Jik had helped them in eliminating the wilting infection, which ‘terrorises’ crops to death after setting in,” he said.

Fusarium wilt is a fungal disease that causes withering in crops in the solanaceae family. Some crops in this family include tomatoes, sweet and Irish potatoes, pepper, black night shade, among others.

This severe infection does not have an approved agrochemical remedy other than sustained field rotation of non-susceptible crops from other families.

After identifying premature drying or withering, Njoroge uprooted the affected plants and discarded them away from the farm to stop further spread.

He took a capful Jik and added it to a cup of water before pouring it into the hole of the ‘casualty’. Because the disinfectant is for external use only, the farmer banked of leeching to drain the chemical after heavy rains.

“After the application, the field remained free until the end of the season. With the heavy rains falling during rotation and land resting time, the chemical elements in the soil may have disintegrated or been leeched to deep soil layers,” he said.

Jik is corrosive laundry detergent that causes skin scorching when used without dilution. Other farmers are reportedly using other germ-killing disinfectants like Dettol.

The following season Kimende Village farmer grew broccoli and cauli flower in that piece of land.

“In ensuring that the farm is safe for growing the Irish potatoes again, he sought the help of crop nutritionist, who tested the soil.

The Irish potatoes are ready for harvesting, and the farmer confirms that there were no cases of fusarium wilt.

Inasmuch as the disinfectants may be helping in taming the infection, Amiran Kenya Agronomist Wycliffe Obwoge said soil streaming and crop rotation remain the approved ways of dealing with fusarium wilt and other diseases that do not have chemical remedies.

Farmers, especially those with greenhouses steam soil to kill the fungi before planting polythene bags. The bags are again placed on polythene sheets to prevent new contamination from the ground.

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: 25 October 2022; Hits: 1741

Young nutritionist named UN-Kenya person of the year

UNDAY 2021 5 Wawira

By George Munene

Kenyan nutritionist and food scientist Wawira Njiru has been named the UN in Kenya person of the year 2021.

The 31-year-old was recognised for her efforts to serve 33,000 meals daily to thousands of Kenyan primary school-going children through her Tap2Eat program that issues each kid with a smart wristband linked to a virtual wallet into which parents deposit money.

Through her organisation Food 4 Education, Wawira prepares and distributes nutritious meals at a reduced cost to public school children in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Kiambu counties.

“The time is now for every Kenyan child to access nutritious meals in schools,” she stated during her speech receiving the award.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted learning in most Kenyan schools Food 4 Education through its innovative technology, Tap2Eat, has served over four million meals to children who would otherwise have been undernourished.

The non-profit was able to reach children with subsidised nutritious meals through strategic distribution centers and virtual cash transfers.

Through 2021 and 2022 Ms. Njiru has set up an additional three kitchens across the country.

The first in partnership with the Kisumu county government to feed an additional 10,000 children in the region.

The second is a pilot kitchen in Mombasa that serves 3,000 children which the company is looking to upscale to 40,000 children.

And a third state-of-the-art kitchen in Kiambu County that cooks with steam.

Kenya is identified as a country with a serious hunger crisis by the Global Hunger Index.

26.9 per cent of the population is undernourished; 23.6 per cent of children under five years exhibit symptoms of physical and cognitive stunting; while 4.2 per cent of death in children under five are directly linked to undernourishment.

Food 4 Education is working to set up kitchens across the country and aims to serve up to one million school meals daily by 2025.

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