Smart farms

: 22 August 2017; Hits: 17534

Wet Salting Technology improves quality of hides and skins

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Wet salting is a simple technology of preserving skins using salt.( PIC: Kenya Livestock Marketing Council)

Farmers in Northern Kenya can improve the quality of their hides and skins by using a new wet salting technology developed by officers at the Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organization (KALRO).

The quality of hides and skins produced in the pastoral areas is of low quality, mainly attributed to poor curing methods among others in the production value chain. The sun drying method used by pastoralists to cure hides and skins i.e. ground and suspension methods have been responsible for low quality production.

Dr. Anastasia Kagunyu (Anthropologist, KALRO Sericulture), Mr. Francis Matiri (Rural Development Economist, KALRO-Embu) and Mr. Elias Ngari (Hides and Skins Development Officer, Marsabit) saw the need to introduce wet salting technique to assist the producers, middlemen and traders in improvement of the quality of hides and skins.

Wet salting is a simple technology of preserving skins using salt to avoid spoilage before they are taken to the tanneries. The best salt for wet salting is industrial salt which is course. The amount of the salt to be applied is 30% of the weight of the hide and skin. Industrial salt reduces the water in hides and skins; it also has an additional protective effect as it penetrates the tissues and inhibits the growth of deteriorating organisms.

In wet salting, the skins are placed flesh side up in a sheltered area immediately after slaughter where salt (approximately 30% of the weight of the skin), is spread on the flesh side. The next skin is then placed on top and again salted on the flesh side, in, this way both sides of the skin are in contact with salt.

About 50 skins can be safely stacked in one pile without causing damage to those lower in the pile. One has to ensure that salt is uniformly spread and applied on each area of the skin/hide. It takes 21 days for curing to be complete, but for hotter climates such as northern Kenya, it may take lesser time.

Without preservation, the hides or skins would spoil before they are received in the tannery. Spoiled hides and skins make bad leathers which may have to be discarded. Seventy percent of hides and skins exported and utilized for leather tanning in Kenya are produced in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya by small holder farmers.

There is declining market demand for sun dried hides and skins as they produce leather products of poor quality. Due to good quality leather production from wet salted hide and skins, the international and local market demand for wet salted curing method. The prices of wet salted hides and skins are better than for sun dried ones as their prices are more than double.

At the market level, wet salted hides and skins are preferred as they take a short time to cure and have fewer chemicals. The other advantage of wet salting is that it does not produce bad odor as compared to the sun dried hides and skins.

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: 21 August 2017; Hits: 12901

Unpredictable rainfall triggers water harvesting among small holder farmers

Evance Kongai in his already installed damliner. Most small holder farmers have adopted simple and effective ways to harvest and conserve water for farming.

The wave of climatic change that has caused unpredictable and untimely rainfall in most parts of Kenya has seen many small scale farmers shift focus to water harvesting as the only remedy.

According to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources -Meteorological Department, this year’s March-May long rains distribution, both in time and space, was generally poor over most parts of the country including the western and central regions. The seasonal rainfall onset was very late over the entire country with most areas remaining sunny and dry.

In order to avert the impacts caused by this untimely and inadequate rainfall, small holder farmers especially in western, rift valley and central Kenya have decided to conserve water by adopting simple conservation strategies.

These farmers build and install damliners, water tanks and sand dams during the rainy season to collect enough water to irrigate their farms and water their livestock when dry spell approaches.

Evans Kongai is a farmer in Mawawa ward Nyamira County. He does his horticulture and livestock farming in his four acres piece of land but unreliable and untimely rainfall pushed him to spend more than Sh30, 000 fetching water to support his agricultural activities.

“Small amount of rainfall nowadays forces me to fetch water a kilometer away using hired donkeys to irrigate my farm and water my livestock,” said Kongai.

However, Kongai has just completed digging and installing his 5x8x2 damliner and 1000 litres tank of water something which cost him Sh11, 000.

Owing support from an agro financier, he is happy that his expenses will reduce and increase his income as he will maintain his steady produce and sales of his watermelon, kales, and indigenous vegetables like spider flower.

“During the coming seasons I expect more produce because of these water harvesting plans I have put in place,” he said.

Victor Agisa is an engineer-cum-farmer based in Nyeri but extends his services to Nakuru and Eldoret. For the past six months he says he has been able to supply and install dam liners with drip kits and water tanks for over 50 farmers for purposes of water harvesting.

“I am happy that farmers especially small scale farmers have taken water harvesting seriously given a good number of them I have interacted with and helped install water harvesting kits,” said Agisa.

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: 18 August 2017; Hits: 16364

Vertical bag farms, relief to small holder farmers

Small holder farmers face many challenges land being the main one, have a big solution with the coming of vertical bag farms that need limited space to set and operate. These bags can be placed within the homestead at the balcony and can be irrigated easily with less amount of water.

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Vertical bag garden. Bag farming is a very convenient and productive way of making use of small pieces of land. Photo: realimpact

Also known as revolutionary vertical bag farming, vertical bag farms improve food security by increasing the number of leafy vegetables that can be grown per meter square - by at least six fold. This makes good business sense for urban farmers, rural farmers and families.

According to Kenya Population Data Sheet 2011, the Kenyan population will hit 65.9 million by 2030 owing to the rapid growth of the population yet most rural farmers have insufficient land to farm and live in.

Bag farming is a very convenient and productive way of making use of small pieces of land and for farmers keen to start this venture, here are some simple instructions on how to set it up:

• Mix the soil and manure
• Add DAP (3 kg) and lime to the mixture.
• Thoroughly mix the bag media ingredients.
• Spread the bag to identify the top, bottom and outer sections.
• Turn the bag inside out and gather it in the middle part of the bottom part.
• Place the bag on the ground right side out.
• Start filling the bag with the mixed media.
• Ensure you have a stable base at the bottom and that all holes are visible.
• Continue filling your bag until you have a well filled upright bag.
• Wet the bag with 30 liters of water and start planting on the sides of the bag.
• Place the curled section of the 16 mm riser pipe fitted with button drippers on the top of your bag.
• Plant leeks, corriander, lettuce, carrots, kales, tomatoes, etc on the top section and you have your very own bag garden.

READ ALSO: Benefits of growing crops in bags

Vertical bag farming are of different sizes as per the number of plants they can hold. Those that can hold 100 plants cost Sh1000 when you buy less than 10 bags and Sh900 when you buy more than 10 bags.

With the world population today standing at 7.5 billion, pangs of famine and hunger threatens the survival of many. Arable land is becoming smaller as compared to need for human settlement- United Nations Population Fund (UNEFPA). Therefore bag farming which also be bought with their drip kits is one of the latest agro technology appealing to many small holder farmers.

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