Smart farms

: 21 January 2019; Hits: 10297

Government to promote green grams farming in Makueni to ensure farmers maximum profit

green grams k

Makueni green gram farmers are set to benefit from the national government initiative launched last week to promote green grams as a model crop in the county by enabling the farmers acquire best production skills, grain processing services and market to ensure full returns.

Last year July, over 314,00 farmers in Ukambani counties of which Makueni is one experienced green grams market glut due to increased production but depressed local and foreign markets demand forcing the prices to drop from Sh100 to Sh40 per kilo.

“The ministry would promote the crop through farmer capacity building, marketing and other value chain linkages to ensure maximum profitability,” said Hamadi Boga, Principal Secretary for Agriculture.

The government will also equip Mukuyuni grain value addition and processing facility.

Already, the Indian government through the intervention by its Kenyan counterpart, last year promised that it will buy 100,000 tonnes of the crop every year from the farmers.

Following this, the government will specifically fund 24 seed bulking multiplication sites which will see the target area under green gram production increase from 80,000 ha to 115,000 ha.

The programme is geared towards increasing production and commercialisation of green grams as the main focus among grains.

Governor Kivutha Kibwana, who hosted the PS, said out of the county government’s support and that of its partners, the acreage under pulses increased to a tune of about Sh8bn.

“We are now focusing on grain processing with plans underway to construct the Makindu Integrated Grain Processing Facility to add value to pulses and enable farmers access both local and export markets,” said Kibwana.

According to 2014-2016 economic review on agriculture sector, Kenya produces over 103,234 metric tonnes of green grams annually with over 6,000 metric tonnes coming from the neighbouring countries in case of a deficit.

RELATED CONTENT: Green grams sprout in arid Makueni

Makueni farmers who grow among other pulses beans, cowpeas, green grams and dolichos under 255,432 hectares under the guardianship of the Agriculture Executive Committee Member Lawrence Nzunga on Thursday last week singled out green grams as their preferred model crop.

The decision was made during a county farmers’ field day at Kwa Kathoka KALRO farm, an event which was presided over by Boga who said that following their preferred choice, the farmers will benefit from agronomical trainings on the crop among other offers.

The event was organised by Makueni County government in collaboration with Kenya Plant Health Inspection services (KEPHIS).

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: 18 January 2019; Hits: 10252

Government launches project to eradicate water hyacinth in Lake Victoria to benefit fish farmers

The Kenyan government has launched plans to eradicate the water hyacinth menace in Lake Victoria, a weed that has led to dwindling fish production affecting fish farmers’ lives by reducing their income.

According to the 2018 economic survey report, Kenya’s fisheries sub sector has declined over the last three years from Sh25.5bn earned in 2014 to Sh22.9bn earned last year due to the encroachment of the weed. In this, the total quantity of fish landed declined from 147.7 thousand tonnes in 2016 to 135.1 thousand tonnes in 2017.

The survey reveals that Lake Victoria’s fish annual output dropped from 98.7 thousand tonnes in 2016 to 92.7 thousand tonnes in 2017.

A 70m long dredging vessel weighing 4,000 tonnes and water hyacinth harvester machines will be used to clean the lake where the weed has blocked beaches and reduced movement of boats and fishing vessels.

Some fishermen have abandoned fishing all together in a bid to find alternative sources of income.

Nyeri farmers adopt cage fish farming from fellows living at the shores of Lake Victoria

Government signs financial agreement with an international funding organization to boost fish farming in Kenya

water hyacinth victoria

Michael Otieno, a former fisherman for instance left his fishing job in 2011 and took advantage of the weed turning it into a business opportunity to produce eco-friendly paper bags from the weed

“My enterprise is part of the environmental solution in fighting the effects of the weed in Kenyan lakes; I have been making business cards, book covers, envelopes and gift bags since 2011,” said Otieno.

He currently employs five to 10 casuals who collect the weed from the shores of Lake Victoria manually by hand. The weed is then transported to his business premises where it’s chopped using knives and then dried on the sun with the aid of his five permanent employees. It takes approximately eight to 12 hours for the weed to dry but depending on the weather patterns it may take 2 days to be completely dry.

After it has dried, the weed is crushed using a pulping machine and mixed with water then suspended on a wire frame where particles are sieved and the remainder is used to make pulp.

Once the paper is dry, it is passed through a calendaring machine which presses the paper to obtain a smooth finish.

Some of his clients include the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC), gift shops and book publishers who make orders of up to 2,000 items per month. He sells an A4 gift bag for Sh150 and an A5 for Sh75. However, the items are tailor made to suit customers’ demands.

But now with the expected removal of the weed, Otieno plans to move to other alternatives to make paper such the papyrus reed and the banana pseudo stem and he does not plan to fish in future.

As for fish farmers, removal of the weed will breathe a new lease of life to the fish population as they will now have adequate oxygen supply previously blocked by the weed.

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: 18 January 2019; Hits: 8951

Kitui County to offer free artificial insemination to over 100,000 farmers to improve production

dairy cattle Kitui Governor H.E. Charity Ngilu admiring a dairy cow at a past agricultural event. Over 100,000 farmers in the county are set to benefit from an artificial insemination to boost their production. Photo courtesy.

Over 100,000 households in Kitui County are set to benefit from a free insemination program offered by the county government to improve milk and beef production of the traditional cattle which are the dominant breed in the county and which have been faced with production challenges.

According to the county livestock statistics, Kitui has about 401,265 head of cattle and only 6,685 are good dairy cattle, making the county heavily deficient in milk supply for domestic and commercial consumption.

The programme which was launched yesterday at Mbitini market in Kitui Rural Constituency will see the indigenous cattle’s ovulation cycle manipulated using scientific methods to synchronise animals to get on heat at the same time and then administer mass artificial insemination.

“This technology-based livestock improvement and multiplication programme induces a large number of females to be on heat in a short, predetermined time,” said Dr. Wathe Nzau, Kitui County Deputy Governor who is also a veterinary doctor by training.

In fact, this will help local farmers earn more money from the planned programme while in future opening a new front for wealth creation and fighting poverty.

In the programme, the county plans to have about 250,000 cattle fertilised between now and March this year across all the 40 wards in Kitui with the hope of producing the same number of calves in October to up milk production.

"We expect each of the 60,000 livestock keeping households in Kitui to produce five litres of milk per day that would be 300,000 litres per day. If it retails at Sh50 per litre it would fetch Sh15m per day, Sh450m per month and Sh5.4bn annually,” said Emmanuel Kisangau, the county Agriculture Executive officer.

The county government has purchased on behalf of farmers, semen from breeds such as Friesian, Guernsey, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Boran and Sahiwal from Kenya Animal Genetic Resources Centre (KAGRC) at Kabete.

South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU) will provide technical support by conducting breeding trials at its main campus, training of the inseminators and developing dry land pasture seeds.

According to Nzau, the programme’s main objective is to produce both pure and cross-breed dairy animals from the local dairy herds and the local indigenous Zebu and Boran cattle herds.

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