Smart farms

: 15 October 2019; Hits: 9574

40 refugees in Turkana set to up vegetable production after training

farmers in turkana tending to cowpeas

Over 40 refugees from Kalobeyei Settlement in Turkana County are set to maximize the use of limited space and scarce water to produce maximum yields thanks to a project by Ruben Centre, a non-profit faith-based organization in Kenya that aims to address food insecurity through innovative, climate-resilient and replicable agricultural techniques in the area.

“After successful implementation of this project in Somalia, our main aim to Turkana residents especially those in refugee camps is to ensure that there is food production all through the year despite climatic conditions,” said Musa Juma, irrigation technician at Ruben Centre.

Some of the crops the farmers are trained on how to produce include spinach, kales, okra, jute mallow, spider plant, eggplant, capsicum, cow peace, nightshade, amaranths, and watermelon.

Other than refugee centres, the project has been aimed at junior farmers and the general host community with innovative kitchen gardening technologies and vegetable drying enterprises in three phases implementation approach.

In this, Ruben Centre experts train farmers through field school models, on ground or field implementation and site capability assessment on sunken beds, wick irrigation, container gardens or vertical sack gardens and zai pit farming techniques.

“Kitchen gardening, for example, has been appreciated by residents as a means of engaging young farmers and their facilitators in learning practical application of knowledge and skills for food production,” said Juma.

RELATED STORY: 100 acre dairy farm milks income in dry land

“Our initiative is meant to empower learners to improve their food and income security through application of numerous dry land farming technologies.”

Initially, the project targeted 30 refugees with wick vegetables gardens but the number has risen to 40 where each beneficiary has been provided with wick garden measuring 2x4m with capacity of 75 litres of water sustaining the garden for two weeks.

However, due to the increasing interest from residents, water challenge and space, some of the beneficiaries have been forced to share the gardens of 1x5m each holding 30 liters of water also enough for two weeks.

Juma says that already the first beneficiaries are expected to begin harvesting for household and for market having been taken through different crop production techniques, water harvesting, pest and disease management and general routine farm management practices.

“Though the farmers are still facing limited sources of water, lack of or poor water harvesting techniques and conflicts of priorities on water usage, more people have shown interest in practicing farming through the established gardens resulting to improved diet and income through sale of surplus produce,” said Juma.

Caption: Women at Turkana’s Kalobeyei Settlement tendering their cowpea vegetables. The farmers have been able to grow a variety of vegetables using innovative, climate-resilient and replicable agricultural techniques. Photo courtesy.

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: 15 October 2019; Hits: 15187

Relay vegetable farming earns Murang’a farmer over Sh52,000 a month from a quarter plot

Simon Ngure

Simon Ngure, a Murang'a County pastor-cum-farmer earns Sh52,000 gross income a month by growing various vegetables such as zucchinis, spinach, kales and tomatoes on relay system that enables him access steady income throughout the year as opposed to planting all the crops at once.

Within his quarter acre farm at Mathioya Sub-county, Ngure has been growing the crops for 23 years by scheduling his planting to offer his customers a continuous supply of fresh vegetables throughout the growing season.

“I plant my vegetables at timed intervals, rather than all at once. The plants mature at staggered dates, establishing a continuous harvest over an extended period,” said Ngure adding that the method also called successive planting is useful in circumventing the initial large yield from the crop and rather providing a steady, smaller yield that may be consumed in its entirety.

The short term crops that take about three months to mature has seen the farmer feed the surrounding community as he balances his pastoral work with the production of the crops.

He grows the vegetables organically by the use of livestock and farm manure to boost soil fertility and controls pests and diseases using charcoal dust and milk which is effective in reducing the effects of adverse cold.

“I also use a solution of crushed chilly, turmeric, ginger to clear destructive pests such as aphids that the corps are prone to,” said Ngure.

In a week the farmer is able to harvest up to 120 kilos of kales, 100 kilos of tomatoes, spinach 50 kilos, and zucchini 40 kilos.

He sells a kilo of kales at Sh30, zucchini at Sh70, spinach at Sh35 and tomatoes at Sh50 farm gate price to traders who come to fetch the produce at his farm daily. This translates to Sh13,150 gross income per week and Sh52,620 per month.

Ngure who is also a pastor does all his farm work in the morning and leaves the wife to watch over in the better part of the afternoon while he shifts to his pastoral duties.

Caption: Simon Ngure tending to his sukima wiki (kales) vegetables. Photo: Zablon Oyugi.

He can be reached on +254 726 354 080

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Monday, 16 August 2021 woow am also in mathioya i will visit the farm for more learning skills

: 14 October 2019; Hits: 14088

Rabbit farming provides stable income for unemployed youth

rabbit farming

In 2017 Jamal Ochieng, a graduate from University of Nairobi decided to take up animal rearing as a source of income as a result of unemployment. Immediately after graduating in September 2015, Jamal went job hunting and was not able to get anything promising for two years and at that point he decided to look for an alternative source of income.

With a variety of options in farming, Jamal had to pick a farm produce that did not need much of monetary investment. He first tried out chicken farming but this made him have more losses than profits. He then decided to take up rabbit farming a venture that has enabled him to take care of his two smaller siblings.

“At first I choose chicken farming since it looked like a venture that would give me quick returns since it’s a commodity that is constantly consumed and I was based in Nairobi. But this was not the case, I lost half of my chicks as a result of diseases and the rest that remained did not fetch much money once I sold them. That is when I decided to try rabbit farming when I moved back home with my parents in Kisumu,” says Jamal.

Through online research Jamal was able to start rabbit farming a venture that enabled him to start experiencing profits within five months. At a cost Sh3,000 each, Jamal was able to buy a male and female Californian rabbit breed and bred them on an eighth of his parents plot in Kisumu town.

Jamal adds that taking care of rabbits is not as difficult as taking care of chicken. There are a few steps one needs to take in order to get robust profit from this venture.

Farming method

One could choose either the cage method where the rabbits are kept in tiny cages or the deep liter method where the female rabbits are put in one area and the male ones live in a different area. Jamal decided to use the cage method.

Feeding

The nutritional requirements are dependent on the breed of the rabbits for Jamal’s breed he feeds them 1/4 cup of high-fiber pellets every day. The common foods of rabbits are green leafy vegetables, green grass, cucumber, seasonal vegetable, carrots, vegetable wastes and spinach. One needs to give them sufficient amount of fresh and clean water according to their demand.

Breeding

At the age of five to six months, the Californian rabbits become suitable and mature for breeding. But the bucks (male rabbits) are not used until they are one year old. Doing this will ensure one gets the best quality of kits for commercial production. For breeding purpose, one should always go for healthy rabbits with appropriate body weight. Provide nutritious feed and take special care to the pregnant female and breeding male rabbits. The development period of rabbits is about twenty eight to thirty days.

After he first bought his first pair of Californian rabbits, he was able to get 8 kits from the doe (female rabbit) which have now increased to a colony of 96 Californian rabbits.

Jamal sells the rabbits to mainly hotels Kisumu where he sells at Sh2,800 per 4Kgs of the meat and to some of the locals as pets at Sh3,500. “In a bad week I normally sell at least six rabbits to the local hotels I get Sh16,800 and in a good week I could sell up to ten rabbits where I get Sh28,000. This is a very profitable venture since I did not need a lot of money to start it, their feed is really affordable and easy to get and the rabbits do not need much tending to as compared to rearing of other farm animals,” adds Jamal.

Jamal concludes by advising the youth not to just depend on office jobs but to look for alternative sources of income such as farming either animal or crop. He intends to increase his colony to at least 200 of them and be able to teach youth in the area of Kisumu town on rabbit rearing.

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Friday, 11 December 2020 [quote=Dennis Nzau]Hallo, am interested in this business of rearing rabbits, kin...