Smart farms

: 30 July 2020; Hits: 7156

Government and industry fast-track measures to save flower industry from EU-banned moth

The Kenyan government and agricultural industry are launching an urgent offensive against a moth that has infested 70 types of crops, from roses to citrus fruits and capsicums, prompting a surge in Kenyan export rejections by the European Union, and an EU review that could now see a growing proportion of the country’s flower and horticultural trade fail.

The EU defines the False Codling Moth (FCM) as a quarantine pest, meaning that fresh produce containing the moth cannot be allowed into the European market. However, random checks of fresh imports from Kenya have found increasing numbers to be FCM-infested, with rose exports, in particular, driving a sharp increase in rejected consignments.

As a result, the EU, which in January 2018 began checking one in every 20 rose consignments from Kenya for infestation by the moth, last year lifted that checking rate to one in every 10 consignments. This year’s review of the checking rate may maintain this rate or may now increase it to one in every four consignments, or even to one in two, or a 50 per cent checking rate by January 2021.

This would see Kenya move to the same regime as Tanzania, where the prevalence of the moth on its roses saw EU import checks increased from 15 per cent in 2018 to 50 per cent last year.

The potential losses for Kenya could amount to as much as 40 per cent of cut flower sales, estimate experts, prompting a crisis meeting last week of agricultural industry players, the State Department of Trade, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on ways of tackling the infestation.

“FCM is now present on more than 70 host plant crops. However, we are working with the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services, Pest Control Products Board, and the Netherlands government to address the issue,” said Clement Tulezi, Kenya Flower Council’s CEO.

“Active ingredients have now been identified to contain the pest and the Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) is carrying out more tests. We cannot afford to lose the market,” said Tulezi.

The cut flower industry earned Sh113bn in 2018, accounting for 73.6 per cent of total fresh horticultural earnings. But, according to Europhyt Interceptions, the moth has caused a jump in rejected imports since then, predominantly of roses, peppers and Gypsophila. Altogether, the total number of interceptions by the EU of infested Kenyan fresh produce imports increased from 59 in 2017, to 89 in 2018, and 97 in 2019. In the first six months of 2020, a further 53 consignments were stopped, showing a continuing acceleration in the trade rejections.

In this, the FCM is the biggest factor. Of the 97 interceptions in 2019, 52 were stopped due to FCM, of which 40 were of roses, 11 of capsicum, and one was of Gypsophila flowers. A further 23 Kenyan consignments of roses have since been stopped due to the moth from January to June 2020.

However, with the EU technical group expected to visit Kenya in October to assess the methods being used to contain FCM, a combined government and industry working group has now developed a series of chemical applications and controls to enable farmers to meet the EU requirements.

“We have achieved key registrations with the Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) for active ingredients that eradicate the moth, and all products that have the ingredients to contain the pest are now being fast-tracked,” said Eric Kimunguyi, CEO, Agrochemicals Association of Kenya.

The PCPB has listed the active ingredients that can be used to control the False Codling Moth as Spinetoram, Acephate, Acetamiprid and Abamectin for roses, and Lufenuron, Chlorantraniliprole, Indoxacarb, and Abamectin for capsicums.

“We are urging all growers to now work with KEPHIS to identify and eradicate the moth before it does irrevocable damage to our flower and horticultural industry, at a time when the sector is already beset with competition and market strains during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline underway as this moth gains ground now needs to be urgently stopped,” said Eric.

Write comment (0 Comments)

: 28 July 2020; Hits: 10165

FarmBiz TV:Farmer grows fast acre of okra to make Sh6k in profits a day

694 l 1 By John Matava

For about thirty years Christopher Wambua has been known as an okra farmer consulted by colleagues from Kiboko, Makueni County and beyond. From his acre farm, he harvests 300kg three times a week, translating to 900kg a week and retailing at Sh70 a kilo to earn Sh63,000 a week. After deducting input and farm labour costs of around Sh20,000, he pockets Sh43,000 a week.

Farmer grows short time crops to earn 3.4m in about 67 days

Kilifi farmer rakes Sh150,000 in 45 days from okra despite inexperience challenges

Write comment (0 Comments)

: 28 July 2020; Hits: 8295

Counties assign ‘digital’ extension officers up to 10,000 farmers each

download 1 By Jolene Njambi

Declining budgets and changing technology have changed the way agricultural extension officers are working in Kenya, but are seeing them spread so thinly that their work is now entirely demand-driven: they only get to the farmers that ask them for help.

According to Mr. Mungera who has worked for over 30 years as an extension officer in Machakos County, in the early 1990s, extension officers started work as early as 8:00 am, and ended the day at around 5:00pm, but that has now changed.

“Today, our budget has been cut by both the national and county governments. We no longer get transport and field work allowances as we used to, resulting to low motivation among us,” said Mungera.

Thus, despite the rising demand for their services by farmers, and the growth in the commercial farming support needed by the country’s agricultural sector, officers have been forced to prioritise their activities from the most to the least urgent tasks.

In this, a typical day for most extension officers begins with about 20 to 50 calls from farmers on matters that require their attention. They then take some few minutes to schedule their daily and weekly engagements based on the inquiries.“We have devised a demand-driven system of offering our services.Farmers make their requests to us, then we proceed to discuss the concerns before moving out for the assignments. This means we get to the field even as late as at noon, something that has been negatively affecting our service delivery.”

Mungera’s description is supported by the 2017 Guidelines and Standards for Agricultural Extension & Advisory Services by the Ministry of Agriculture, which state that there are constraints impacting on the experts’ service delivery, including low funding.

It is because of this that many officers have resorted to using their mobile phones to sort out rampant pest and diseases concerns from farmers, further reducing the time they spend with farmers.

Today, they ask farmers to send pictures of their affected plants accompanied with some few explanations via WhatsApp for feedback, diagnosis and follow up advice on what the farmer should do to get rid of the problem and future prevention mechanisms.

For the remaining concerns, an interactive face-to-face session is what is usually needed. Farmers, who get his contacts from the MCA or assistant chiefs, are encouraged to organise themselves into groups of at least 20 and make appointments for the day and time he will meet them.

According to Mungera, he serves 15,000 to 20,000 farmers, a responsibility he shares with only one other extension officer for an area that covers 6,043 square kilometers in total .Over his 30 years of experience, he has seen allowances and benefits that were once at extension officers’ disposal erased from their employment package.

“Allowances would be handed out as per government job groups, meaning a person with greater responsibilities would receive higher allowances. I was eligible for a minimum allowance of Sh1000 as well as fuelled cars to transport me to my area of training. This is not the case anymore.”

For Ms. Kobo who has been an extension officer since 1986 in the lower eastern part of the county, she oversees around 1000 farmers over a total area of 5,283 square kilometres.

“Under the devolved government there is an assumption that you reside in the area in which you work and therefore transport allowance is unnecessary. We now personally bear these costs,” she said.

Generally, it may cost around Sh200 on average to get to their area of training, a cost which covers a distance of around five to eight kilometres. For Kobo, despite residing in her area of work, getting to fields and farms costs her an average of Sh400 a day. Where she has to travel a further distance like to Vota or Machakos central, it winds up costing her at least Sh600 a day.

For her, training sessions usually commence from 10 am and last about two hours. Kobo explains that requested topics are usually season based, and depend on the stage of growth of the crops in that area. For instance, in Mua, it is presently harvesting season, which means most of her training is now centred around advising farmers on post-harvest loss prevention and management, proper storage techniques, pests and aflatoxin prevention and how to market their produce.

During planting season, she will teach on measures to take for land preparation before planting, acquisition of certified varieties of seeds, proper input and manure application as well as on making hills and terraces for planting. This is followed by sessions on timely spraying, weeding and proper fertiliser application. However, the entire year will see her training on soil and water conservation measures, demonstrations on how to set up kitchen gardens, construction of drip irrigation kits, crop husbandry practices, pest disease and control mechanisms, input acquisition subsidies, and setting up of greenhouses.

There is also assistance with soil and water conservation techniques that need equipment such as a line level tool, a tape measure, flip chart and masking tapes.

“The government caters for any equipment we need. In this way, our work has been made much easier,” said Mungera.

After field work

Most of the time these officers are required to report back to their officers after field work to write reports that are sent to the higher offices as information about the concerns of the growers. They also use this time to set up future appointments.

Every fortnight, extension officers attend meetings with the chief or assistant chief where they are expected to give an account of their weekly activities.

“I inform farmers who reach out to me that I will be unavailable on every second and last Friday of the month. We used to have these meetings every week but with the emergence of COVID-19, we had to reduce our meeting frequency,” said Kobo. She adds that since the pandemic, her daily schedule has seen a significant disruption that has led to more and more infrequent trainings.

“My training sessions have also been limited to only five people per group and must be done within 45 minutes or less.”

Write comment (0 Comments)