Smart farms

: 20 May 2016; Hits: 8441

All attention has turned to coffee as the export market begs for rejuvenation

Nestlé has rolled out a training programme to encourage more women and youth to venture into coffee farming even as the latest report by the Coffee Directorate shows that farmers are losing patience with the crop due to its low revenues. The waning interest is a threat to the country's export portfolio, which has coffee as the fourth foreign currency earner after tourism, horticulture and tea.

Last year, the country’s earnings from coffee export grew by 17 per cent to $254.2m contributing less than 1 per cent of the global Arabica coffee, a plain shadow of the country’s production rate up to 1989 when the crop was the leading foreign exchange earner for Kenya.

Nestle Kenya is offering training and technical support to coffee farmers across the country in a bid to increase the crop production which is the company’s main raw material for its products. According to Ciru Miring’u, Managing Director of Nestlé East Africa, the programme has already reached 41,000 coffee farmers in Central and Eastern Kenya. The imitative which is implemented by the Coffee Management System is expected to cost the company at least sh40m.

Just like other export crops in the country, coffee earnings has been experiencing downwards trend due to low beans quality; high cost of labor and inputs; erratic rains; high incidences of pests and diseases; competition from other farm enterprises; and poor governance of farmer organizations, this according to the 2015 coffee annual report by the Global Agricultural Information Network.

This has made most large scale producers near Nairobi to opt for lucrative real estate business leaving the production burden to nearly 600,000 small scale farmers owning less than two hectares. Currently, coffee is cultivated on about 170,000 hectares with only 3270 large scale producers almost a half the number of such farmers in late 80s.

A part from Nestle initiative, county governments in the coffee growing areas have embarked on a vigorous mission to revive coffee production with most of them currently at various stages of putting in place laws to regulate coffee production and marketing.
In Murang’a County for instance, coffee farmers are being encouraged to form Saccos with the local government linking them directly with international markets. This according to Governor Mwangi Wa Iria is expected to increase earnings for local farmers who traditionally have been delivering to local coffee agencies and middlemen at very low price. Local farmers have also set up cottage companies to do value addition on the crop to increase revenues.

Kenya is hoping to ride on such initiatives to revive the once glorious coffee industry that was envy to global competitor like Brazil who now command 40 per cent of the global export market and perhaps earn the country the much needed foreign currency at the time Kenya’s economy is heading south.

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: 20 May 2016; Hits: 25298

Ugandan pigs gain 0.5 kgs daily from locally made feeds

Pig farmers in Uganda have embraced sweet potato silage feeds which enable animals to add close to half a kilo of weight per day and proving to be more affordable than the commercial feeds.

The new feeds which are made from locally available materials is being championed by researchers from International Livestock Research Institute ILRI. After having realized that most farmers are at crossroad with overcoming the challenge of access to affordable and quality feeds, the scientists’ ear marked feeds as an urgent factor to be addressed. Feeds play a very big factor in animal rearing and that too applies to pig farming. In fact it is estimated that as a major constraint in pig production can account for close to 80percent total production costs. This therefore explains why Danillo Pezo and his team dedicated most of their resources into the search of a sustainable solution.

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“We found out that 35 out of 36 farmers in villages use food remains as feeds for the pigs. However, the feeding pattern was not the best as the animals are left at the mercy of whatever food remains available and therefore this affected the growth and final products from the animal,” explained Danillo. In most cases the farmers were left cursing because of the low prices their animals attracted from the market. To reverse the situation and help improve the livelihoods of these farmers, the scientists sought to empower the farmers with knowledge on how to prepare and preserve quality feeds from sweet potato vines, cassava and yam leaves.

According to Danillo, the farmers were already using these materials as feeds for the pigs although they were ignorant on how to best maximize the returns from them. For instance, the farmers could only avail these feeds to their animals during specific times of the year like harvesting time and when they are in plenty therefore rendering these feeds seasonal thus affecting the animal growth. “Animals do not require feeds on a seasonal basis but every day in order to have a uniform growth, noted Danillo.

The scientists have availed to pig farmers the affordable technology of ensuring use of crop feeds throughout the year and therefore scrapping of the seasonal factor. The process of making and preserving these crop feeds is known as silage making. The silage that is well prepared and last for over 20years and unlike the crop feeds used directly, silage is available throughout the year.

To prepare the silage, farmers cut the potato vines, cassava leaves or yams. Its then placed under sun shine for sometime in order to reduce the moisture. Too much water brings in mould or fungi which may end being toxic .The vines or leaves should be chopped into smaller pieces to ease the compaction process. Compact the vines in an air tight container or polythene and leave it for 40 days after which it will be ready to be served to the animals.

Silage avails all the nutrients in the crop to the animals. For instance, sweet potato vines contain 16percent proteins. However, if served to the animals immediately after harvesting, then it may have a negative effect to the animal. This is because the fresh vines also contain trypsin enzyme which blocks enzymes from breaking down the proteins. Danillo advises that the best option is either to cook the vines or prepare silage which enables the bacteria to feed on the anti nutrition enzyme. Animals fed on these products can acquire all the available protein from the vines.

As a result of the high proteins available for absorption by the animal, Danillo noted that more farmers adopting these crops are all smiles given the positive results they are witnessing. For best results the silage is mixed with 5percent maize bran, salt, cassava flour and some other additives containing the vitamins and calcium needed by the animal for a balanced diet registration. Farmers can record over 400grams body weight increase on their animals daily.

Dairy farmers in Uganda are also using the technology to feed their animals and they too are recording impressive results. Currently farmers in the country are being sensitized and empowered to adopt the technology. In China where the technology was first adopted, farmers record as high as close to a kilo of body weight increase among their pigs.

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: 20 May 2016; Hits: 25340

Sweet Potato vines silage making as Pig feeds

Pig farmers in Uganda are sighing with relief after the introduction of a low cost feeds alternative that has proved to be effective with farmers recording over 400grams of daily in body weights of their animals.

The technology which is easy to adopt has been fronted by scientists from International Livestock Research Institute ILRI. The technology commonly referred to as silage preparation and preservation thrives on the use of available crop feeds like potato vines, cassava leave, yams among others.

The preparation of these feeds mainly focuses on the need to have consistent supply eradicating the seasonal dependence syndrome and relieving all the anti nutrition compounds like enzymes and cyanides which render them ineffective feeds to animals in their raw form.

In order to prepare these feeds which are also ideal for dairy cows especially among farmers practices zero grazing, One first to acquire the potato vines, cassava leaves or yams. Chop the vines into smaller pieces in order to enhance compressing process and limit amount of oxygen in the mixture when being worked upon by the bacteria.

The chopped vines and leaves should be left in the sun for a few hours to reduce the moisture in it because too much moisture may bring in fungi or moulds which in the end become toxic to the animals which will feed on the feeds. In addition, fresh cassava leaves contain cyanide and therefore when left in the sun for 8 to 12 hours. According to Danillo Pezo From ILRI cassava leaves contain 25 to 30 percent protein while the sweet potato vines contain 16percent protein

Add a portion of salt, 5 percent maize bran and cassava flour. Mix them together and store in air tight container or polythene bag. The bacteria will rid the vines of the anti nutrition compounds like trypsin and reduce the PH. After fourth days, the silage feeds will be ready for use. It can be stored and re used later when the crop feeds are out of season and can even last for over 20 years.

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