Smart farms

: 27 October 2022; Hits: 1364

Charcoal & eggshells mix quick remedy for poisoned rabbits

Rabbit Otwori

A simple mix of a charcoal suspension and a raw egg can save rabbits that have been poisoned by feed, by making them vomit.

Brian Otwori, a former Kisii University animal production technology student now managing the institution’s rabbit farm, said cutting the supply of the toxins in time would save these delicate non-ruminants.

“After detecting poisoning, the farmers should quickly prepare a mixture of about five mililitres of an egg together with charcoal. The mixture will initiate vomiting. Vomiting immediately cuts the source of the poison, as well as reduces the concentration for suppression in the system,” he said.

Rabbits instinctively avoid poisonous plants. But with farmers using common weeds for feeds, they can easily lose stock to poisonous plants slashed together with the feeds.

Rabbits are delicate non-ruminants that can be swept within an hour after poisoning.

Dangerous weeds to rabbits

Common poisonous plants include Irish potato leaves and tubers, tomato leaves, and most crops in the solanaceae family. Plants in this family contain solanine that kills cells most small non-ruminants.

Oxalis, avocado, Sodom apple, jimson weed (Datura) and pig weed are the other toxic plants farmers should avoid.

Oxalis grows in grass as well as in the shambas and can be slashed and included in the feeds without noticing. Pig weed for instance, Otwori said, has nitrite compounds which disrupt the chemical balance of the body system.

"Charcoal powder and eggs are strong detoxidants, when mixed in correct ratios", Otwori said.

The student, who is graduating later his year, is also a rabbit farmer at his home at Kenyerere Kebirigo, Nyamira County.

He has 37 rabbits and hopes to increase the stock to more than 100 to tap into urine agribusiness.

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: 26 October 2022; Hits: 1537

Kitui farmer keeps farm irrigated through trench water harvesting

banana plants planted in trenches a.a. seif infonet biovision

As drought causes losses of livestock and crops in most parts of Kenya in the ongoing prolonged spell, Muniu Ngwau’s bananas are still green as a result of the water she harvested from roads during the rains.

It has not rained for more than three months in Kitui County. But the bananas look healthy and water-sufficient as if it rained the previous day.

Ngwau learnt of the trick, which has also raised her maize and beans production by five times, from Roads for Water organisation.

By digging shallow trenches from the nearby road, the water running alongside the highway is directed to her five-acre farm at Kisasi, Kitui County.

The water together with the silt accumulate at the base of the about six feet deep trenches, where ‘a heavy mattress’ of mulching awaits and helps to contain and retain this key component of production.

“Given that the base is less exposed to direct sunlight and strong wind, the soil remain moist for more than three months after the rains,” she said.

From one acre, where she used to harvest five 90kg bags of maize and one such 90kg bag of beans, the farmer got a boost of up to five times.

Ngwau harvested 20 bags of maize and five bags of beans. Shallow water pathways meander through the one acre in intervals. They convey the water to the crops from the storage bank when it is dry.

The water has also helped bolster short season crops like pigeon peas from three to seven bags.

Water usage reduces with time after the long rains because of the quick maturity of the crops. She grows quick maturing and drought tolerant maize varieties, which are ready for harvest by the end of the fourth month.

She also has mango trees.

Hundreds of livestock have died sick in the low rain fl regions in Kenya. Grazing vegetation and crop have diminished with the dry spell spanning for more than three months.

It is easy to collect surface run-off water for later usage especially from roadsides because for the large volumes.

By the next rain season, the mulch and the humus could have rotten into a cheap organic fertiliser that boosts soil nutrients and texture.

Roads for Water is an organisation supporting farmers with skills of harnessing rain water to sustain farming during dry months.

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: 26 October 2022; Hits: 2433

Lighting kerosene lantern helps tomato farmers control fruit flies

images 3 1 In boosting crop protection against pests for 24 hours, Derick Nyambane in the last season resorted to lighting a kerosene lantern at night in his half an acre tomato field as a way of luring pests to death traps.

Beside the lantern is a fruit fly trap device.

Nyambane used a metarhizium 69-filled lure, which is a biological pest control device that infects fruit flies with a fungus that kill them within five days.

The device emits sex pheromone-like fumes that attract fruit flies, which ‘think’ their partners are in the kit and they move there for mating.

Once they enter there, the metarhizium 69 fungi attach themselves onto the bodies of the pests and start growing, according to Real Integrated pest Management Ltd expert Isaac Guda.

As they fly out to their hiding areas, they share the fungi to their ‘brothers and sisters’.

Insects are generally attracted to light. Given that at night, the lantern is the only strong source of light, they move to it.

“The pheromone trap is effective during the day because the device is yellow and can be seen from far. It indeed, attracts many fruit flies. Given that I have light at night, they are attracted to it and upon reaching there, they are distracted by the pheromone lure. When they enter the trap, they start their journey to death,” the Nyamira County farmer, who harvested tomatoes in December, said.

Metarizium 69 is one of the biological control methods being advanced to farmers by companies like Real Integrated Management Ltd, Thika, in reducing use of chemicals in pest control.

Most insects are attracted to bright colours like yellow and blue. After burning for a while, the light from the lantern turns yellowish, therefore, the receptor in the insects are alerted. The pests are tricked that it is daytime, therefore, they need to go and feed.

Metarhizium 69 fungi grow and multiply on the body of the fruit fly. The fungus extracts nutrients from the flies, which die in three to five days.

Guda, who is an agronomist and an environmental expert, said one requires four of these lure devices in every half of an acre for effective control of the fruit flies.

In a better utilisation of the light, the farmer also can include the yellow and blue stickers to mechanically trap other pests like thrips and aphids.

Fruit flies are notorious after flowering of mangoes, tomatoes and other fruit.

They piece the skin and lay eggs in the flesh and at the maggots grow, they cause premature and false ripening, rotting and dropping of the fruits.

The one litre lantern was on until mid night. And it consumed about half a litre for that period. Nyambane at times skipped days after realising the infestation was min

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