Smart farms

: 26 July 2022; Hits: 3094

Embu farmers slash energy costs by 40% with coffee husk briquettes

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By George Munene

The Rainforest Alliance is partnering with local organizations and coffee farmers in Embu County to turn their coffee husks into smokeless carbonized household cooking briquettes which reduce energy costs by 40 per cent.

The project which will serve 1,500 members of the Kibugu Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Embu County will reduce their cost in money, time, and energy used in fetching firewood as well as increase access to affordable, efficient, and clean energy technologies.

The coffee farmers will also have access to more efficient cookstoves which can be purchased through credit and payment installments made possible through a revolving fund. The project will also connect energy suppliers to energy entrepreneurs.

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A central Household Energy Center (HEC) will use coffee husks from local coffee mills to make briquettes which will be distributed through two satellite HECs and six Last Mile Entrepreneurs (LME) who will serve as retailers of these products and target remote, rural areas.

The project which will directly employ 13 people will reduce both household air pollution-- cooking smoke from traditional fuels contributes to 21,500 deaths in Kenya as well as a range of chronic and acute illnesses.

It will also help reduce deforestation and increase farmers’ disposable incomes as they’ll have more money to put towards other needs.

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: 18 July 2022; Hits: 3910

Kenya secures Sh7.5B loan for subsidised fertilizer & seeds ahead of short rains

a1 taat kenya lucy njeri beneficiary

By George Munene

The African Development Bank Group has approved a Sh7.5 billion loan to Kenya to enable the government to provide affordable fertilizer and seeds to farmers ahead of the October-December 2022 short rains and into the 2022/2023 long rains crop production season.

This will boost cereals and oil seeds production by over 1.5 million metric tonnes over the next two years. It is part of an Africa-wide initiative to avert a looming food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

The project entails the delivery of certified seeds, fertilizers, and agricultural extension to 650,000 farmers to boost productivity. An e-voucher system will be used in their disbursal, ensuring that subsidies for inputs are “smart”.

“We are pleased to present the Kenya African Emergency Food Production Facility,” said Dr. Beth Dunford, the Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development. “Successful implementation of the Facility will see some 650,000 farmer direct beneficiaries, resulting in the production of 1.5 million tonnes of cereals and oil seeds. In all, the Facility will positively impact some 2.8 million people,” she added.

Another project component will provide trade finance guarantees and leverage the private sector to ensure sufficient fertilizer volumes are available to farmers. In addition to boosting staple food availability, the project, which targets smallholder farmers, is expected to particularly benefit women and youth.

“The government is looking into ways and means of addressing the cost of ‘unga’ (maize flour) to bring it down so that consumers can afford it,” said Peter Munya, Kenya’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary.

Kenya—and other countries in East Africa and the Horn of Africa — have been hit hard by not only the inflationary effects of the war in Ukraine, locust swarms, fall army worm invasion, and climate- and drought-related impacts. The number of food-insecure people in the country’s pastoral and marginal areas rose by 48% between August 2021 and February 2022, according to estimates.

These overlapping shocks—together with the Covid-19 pandemic--have set back Kenya’s progress towards achieving its sustainable development goals.

On May 20, the Bank Group’s Board of Directors approved the African Emergency Food Production Facility, which will provide agricultural seeds to 20 million African farmers. The goal is to produce an additional 38 million tonnes of food, primarily wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans which will generate $12 billion over the next two years.

Photo Courtesy of the African Emergency Food Facility program for Kenya

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: 15 July 2022; Hits: 2921

Nutrition expert churns traditional vegetables to flour

amaranth flour

Amaranth can easily be mistaken for just another pesky weed. And while those who don't see it as a weed may plant amaranth as a vegetable, Ann Muthoni, a nutrition expert, is seeing it through to its full potential, by making a unique flour out of it.

“My company produces one tonne of amaranth flour products every day, which includes toasted amaranth porridge flour, whole-grain puffed amaranth, baby weaning formula and fortified maize flour, packaged in 250g, 500g and 2kg,” said Ann

She sells a 2kg bag of fortified maize flour at a whole sale price of Sh140 to supermarkets which later retail it for Sh147.

After arriving in Kenya in 1997 from Sweden, where she first heard about the flour, Muthoni looked for Dr. Davidson Mwangi, who had already ventured into amaranth farming. For four years, she accompanied Dr. Mwangi in teaching and sensitizing farmers on amaranth farming. She later took to farming herself, making her first harvest in 2003.

Using the sales and marketing skills she had learnt while assisting Dr. Mwangi, Muthoni started outsourcing amaranth grains from farmers across the country and selling them to local processing companies. And in 2008, she had enough exposure and experience to start her processing plant, in Ruai, under the brand name Annico Enterprise.

She now sells the highly lucrative and nutritious flour at various supermarkets across the country, including Tuskys, Clean Shelf and Kamidi.

While being a high-value crop, Ann's success demonstrates that amaranth was worth the investment.

Exports values of fruits and vegetables increased by 23.3 per cent and three per cent, respectively in 2017 according to the 2018 economic survey report.

A 2016 FAO report on promoting the growth and development of small holder farmers and food security stated that high value crops are regarded as a key to economic empowerment of small holder farmers. The report observes that most small holder farmers - especially in the developing world - are reluctant to change, which ultimately can damage their farm production.

The FAO report cites a case study of small holder farmers in South Africa who have stuck to maize farming for many years, receiving low yields due to depleted soils. The report also offered those farmers an alternative, through planting legumes such as peas and soya beans, which are high value crops and ideal for nitrogen fixation.

Although she has contracted farmers across the country to deliver her the produce, Ann lamented that the lack of a steady supply of amaranth leaves is slowing her down. She, however, describes the business as rewarding, after getting contracted to stock 52 Tuskys supermarket branches across the country.

Not only does it prove its worth in sales, but amaranth seeds are highly nutritious. Amaranth flour is low in cholesterol and sodium, and is also a good source of iron, magnesium and phosphorus, as well as manganese and folic acid, both essential nutrients for mothers and children.

Muthoni’s success shows that good earnings can be made from high value crops, most of which are ignored by many farmers. Grain amaranth, after planting, grows with little maintenance. It can be harvested thrice in a year and a kilogram retails for Sh50.

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