Smart farms

: 20 April 2016; Hits: 7535

Nakuru County to vaccinate 400,000 animals

Nakuru County government is in a vaccination rush to save more than 400,000 heads of livestock following cases of a deadly viral infection being reported in the region.

A team of veterinary officer are crisscrossing affected regions with the free vaccination against lumpy skin disease, which has been reported in Gilgil and Naivasha sub-counties.

Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Executive Stephen Chepkwonyi has asked farmers to cooperate with the officer to control the disease, from spreading to other regions, including Nakuru National Park. The executive said at least 5,000 cattle have been vaccinated adding that the county aims to administer the preventive drug to about 300,00 others.

According to United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organiation (FAO), the disease, can cause massive losses as a result of ruminant livestock succumbing to dehydration, and starvation due to dismal appetite.

Outstanding symptoms include depression and discharge from nose, eyes and mouth due to nodules in the mentioned parts.

It may cause abortion for in-calf cows while infected bulls may not serve females for days because of excessive pain on their sheath.

“Farmers should take their animals to vaccination centres to help us contain further spread. Before death, there is decreased milk output. Growths around the neck, genitalia, tail, fever, depression, among others should should worry a farmer,” the executive said.

The exercise will also be done throughout the county, which also has farmers moving from one place to another in search of pastures and water.

FAO warns that lesions in the respiratory system make livestock susceptible to pneumonia attack.

Viral diseases do not have cure, but vaccination can prevent further spread to healthy livestock.

Two vaccines, Neethling and Kenya sheep and goat pox virus have been used widely in Africa with success.

Other than deterioration of the quality of hides and skin, the international food agency says, up to 40 per cent deaths have been linked to the disease.

Although the disease has been confined to African states with the first reported in Kenya being in 1957, livestock movement restriction has not helped in controlling its spread.

If the Nakuru case is not controlled, the disease may spread to the national park and attack ruminants such as buffaloes and zebras. The causative agent is called the lump skin disease virus.

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: 20 April 2016; Hits: 10138

Passsion fruit shortage hits soft drink companies

Farmers can meet the sharp soft drink market demand by growing high-yielding passion fruit varieties developed by Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization KALRO) five years ago.
A 10-year research by the State agency yielded three varieties KPF11, KPF12 and KPF4, which produce twice as much as the common purple species per 2.5 acres.
Speaking to Farmbiz Africa on telephone, KALRO’S Horticulture Research Institute officer Peter Mburu, said the new varieties can produce 12-16 tonnes per 2.5 acres while the purple one yields between six to eight tonnes in the same piece of land.
The Thika-based researcher said the 2011 varieties are sweeter, bigger and less acidic, features lacking in the commonly grown purple type.
Mburu said KALRO came up with the varieties to help farmers meet the local demand from soft drink companies, which are importing passion fruit concentrates majorly from South Africa.
Failed project
He added that those varieties are resistant to various passion fruit diseases including fusarium wilt, brown spot, woodiness viruses and nematodes.
He gave an example of a five year failed project that was sponsored by US' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which could have alleviated the shortage.
In the project, farmers were funded to grow and sell their yields to global soft drink giant Coca Cola.
He explained that in spite of high yielding varieties, funding and ready market, the 2011-2015 project, which targeted  37,000 passion fruit farmers in the country failed because they never produced enough fruit to sustain Coca Cola's local demand.
The increased demand coupled with better prices-with a kilo of passion fruit retailing between Sh80 and Sh100-makes passion fruit farming a viable venture.
It can give farmers triple earnings as opposed to crops like maize, which is mostly  grown by smallholder farmers.
Seedlings for these multiple yielding varieties are available in the  various KALRO offices across the country at Sh30 per piece.

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: 20 April 2016; Hits: 14370

Enterprising Kenyan leader spearheads snail farming

Rosemary Odinga is the only farmer currently registered by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to raise snails and she is working to make her venture, which she started in 2007, even bigger.

Ms. Odinga, 39, learned of snail farming from former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who owns one of the biggest mollusc farm in West Africa.

Obasanjo’s farm currently has a capacity of more than 500,000 and adequately serves the Nigerian market, where the molluscs are preferred as bar snacks.

She got more information about snail farming from the late Dr. Kibberenge Musombi of the University of Nairobi, who also donated 13 snails to her starting brood. Dr. Musombi had extensively studied the distribution of land-snails in Kenya and wrote several papers on his findings.

“Dr. Musombi taught me a lot about the different types of snails and how to commercially grow them,” said Ms. Odinga.

First time unlucky

Yet even with her dedicated research and preparation, Ms. Odinga still did not get the set up right and she ended up losing 11 of the 13 snails she had received from Dr. Musombi.

She reckons the temperature of the structure she had set up to raise them was constantly high, whereas snails thrive well in cool and wet areas.

Not one to give up, she set up a greenhouse on a section of her 25-acre piece of land, and with her two remaining snails, proceeded to set up a flock of more than 3,000 presently.

Ms. Odinga specializes in Achatina Fulica, the Giant African land snail, which she keeps in plastic basins inside her greenhouse.

The basins hold soil that is kept moist by regularly sprinkling water on. Achatina Fulica take five months to sexually mature and each can lay up to 400 eggs at a time.

Snails, which are hermaphrodites (have both male and female reproductive organs) love leafy vegetables, such as kales and cabbages. Once mature, the snails are killed, cleaned and packed in 160g bags, each containing two dozen (24) mollusks.

Snails are classified as wild animals and for one to raise them, farmers have to first get a license from the KWS, who give farmers the greenlight after confirming that they have the capacity to raise the snails sustainably.

Among Ms. Odinga’s earliest clients were high-end hotels in Nairobi, but on realizing she could not sustain the demand, she opted to focus on individual buyers and select supermarkets.

A fast-rising public figure, Ms. Odinga urges youth to embrace farming as it is a genuine way out of dependency.

“I find farming rewarding and educative-I have always seen the circle of life as interesting. I think it is also important to know where your food comes from before it gets to your plate,” she said.

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