Smart farms

: 25 April 2019; Hits: 9828

Pans helps farmers harvest water for use all-year round

Farmers can have access to water for use in the farm all-year round even in times of drought by building water pans to harvest and conserve the commodity.

A report published in the International Journal of Climatology reveals that Kenya is highly vulnerable to drought. Only 20 per cent of the country receives high and regular rainfall. The remaining 80 per cent is characterized as arid and semi-arid lands where rainfall is variable and drought is a regular feature of the climate.

The arid and semi-arid lands house more than half of all livestock in Kenya and more than a quarter (30 per cent) of the population; these are among the most vulnerable populations to rainfall variability and drought and as such with the ongoing rains, farmers can take advantage by building pans.

A water pan is a pond for storing rain water from roads or fields which is then used to water crops and given to livestock.

According to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, pans are built on the lowest point of the farm near the road or field and on soils which hold water (clay).

A round pan 24 feet across and three feet deep for instance will hold 200 drums, enough water for up to five cows and irrigating one acre of crops when there is no rain.

To prevent water loss, line the pan bed and walls with heavy clay or plastic sheeting. Plant indigenous trees such as acacia, grafella, croton and neem tree to stop the water from drying up. Avoid planting Blue gum as it will make the pond dry by taking in all the water.

Make the walls of the pan strong by putting stones on the side, making the slopes gentle and planting grass on the wall.

Water saving crystals that can enable plants survive longer in dry conditions

Farmer invests in water to increase his gross income from Sh30,000 to Sh360,000 a season

charles mwingi

A water pan at Charles Kalili's farm in Mwingi that has helped him have access to water all-year round for his animals. Photo/file.

Mwingi farmer Charles Kalili for example has tripled his livestock herd from 20 to 63 goats, and sheep from 20 to 52 after building a water pan to harvest water for his animals in the 2017/18 rainy season.

“Initially I used to take my animals to quench their thirst two kilometers away from my home at a neighbors homestead, this was tiresome and time consuming but with the water pan I can harvest 500,000 liters off run-off water in a rainy season enough to last for half a year,” said Kalili.

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: 24 April 2019; Hits: 17591

Eldoret passion farmer earning up to Sh70,000 a week after leaving chaotic ‘mitumba’ business

Jushua Kamau watering passion veins

Kamau watering his passion fruits at his farm in Eldoret. Photo courtesy.

Joshua Maina Kamau due to harassment by Eldoret municipal council policemen in January 2018 left his second hand clothes or ‘mitumba’ selling business which was earning him an income of Sh300 to Sh500 a day to venture into passion fruit farming which earns him 10,000 to 70,000 gross income a week.

According to a 2016 by Mohamud Abdimalik Mohammed for the University of Nairobi on Planning Challenges Facing Informal Small Scale Economic Activities in Nairobi, Case of Ngara West Market, traders are faced with various challenges with key challenges being: harassment from the county officials, poor working environment conditions (structural), poor supporting infrastructure and lack of space to work from.

“Every day we were on running battles with the town policemen or ‘askaris’ for a number of reasons one being business permits and when they caught up with us, we would be forced to bribe them to an extent of using all the daily sales besides losing some of the business property,” said Kamau.

However, his journey to being a successful passion farmer did not start easily. Kamau has tried his hands on various menial jobs to make ends meet.

After dropping out of Kakitui primary school in class six in 1992 due to lack of fees, Joshua now 42, went to work as a shamba boy for two different farms. The first farm was in Lugari ,Kakamega county and his second farm was in Elgon view Eldoret town, he worked for eight months and three months respectively .

This helped him gain experience in running a farm and he contemplated about starting one of his own but at the time he was unable to raise enough capital. The money, Sh600 a month, he earned was only enough to cater for his needs at the moment.

From ‘shamba boy’ he ventured into a kaimati selling before mechanic services and then to a household goods hawker. These were some of the odd jobs that he did for 15 years but in 2007 he was employed by a lady in Eldoret to help sell second hand clothes. He did this for a period of five years and then he decided to start his own second hand clothes selling business since he had enough experience and market knowledge. So in 2010, Joshua opened his own business the town.

“I could not manage to raise enough money to take care of my family and pay for my children’s school fees with the little I was earning from the second- hand clothes selling business. I wanted to supplement my income or venture into a new line of business that would comfortably sustain my income,” said the father of three.

In November 2017, he decided to gather information by researching on passion fruit farming on the internet. He also visited other farmers on his town, who were also doing the same kind of farming to get more insight. From this, he was taught how to graft passion fruits and the best irrigation methods for the fruits.

After gathering enough information, he approached equity bank for a loan of Sh100,000 and topped it with Sh40,000 from his savings to sum up to Sh140,000 as starting capital.

Joshua was given an acre from their family’s 82 acre land in Eldoret, he set aside a quarter of that for the passion fruit farming.

He spent Sh2, 100 to buy seeds, Sh41, 000 on manure, he paid seven workers Sh10, 500 each to dig 700 holes in the land, Sh13, 000 on transport, Sh12, 500 for planting and the rest he spent on miscellaneous.

Kamau weeding passion fruits

Kamau weeding his passion fruits at his farm in Eldoret. Photo courtesy.

He grafted yellow and purple passion fruits, which are drought resistant therefore, take only six months to mature and produces fruits that are of good quality. He also sells to other farmers the grafted passion for Sh50 a seedling. He prepared the land for planting for two months that was by soil testing, digging holes and applying manure.

Joshua began planting in12th January 2018. He planted 700 vines of grafted passion of the variety B12 but due to drought and pests he lost 100 vines and remained with 600.

After six months, he harvested seven kilogram purple passion fruit and from then he has been harvesting from 100kg to700kg of passion fruits a week. He will be harvesting for the next three years before planting again.

He sells his produce to brokers with a kilogram of passion fruit going at Sh100 earning him Sh10, 000 to Sh70, 000 a week.

Aside from passion fruit farming, Joshua also grows vegetable such as cabbage, sukuma, butternut, cucumber, beetroot and thorn melon. This earns him at least Sh20, 000 a month. He has one permanent employee and two casual workers.

He also keeps 60 sheep and two indigenous cows. He is happy being a farmer and currently has acquired another acre from their family land to expand the passion fruit farming.

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Friday, 30 April 2021 Nice lesson here

Thursday, 03 September 2020 Happy for Kamau who started from a humble ground..... and earning from his hard ...

: 23 April 2019; Hits: 13241

Community based organization helping farmers grow herbs to benefit from an all-time stable prices

basil Basil, a common aromatic herb in the mint family. Photo courtesy.

Helitech, a community based organisation in Lari Sub-County, Kiambu County is helping farmers by training and providing them with farm inputs to grow herbs such as chia, basil and fennel among others whose prices are all-time stable as compared to grains and cereals that the farmers were growing before.

“Herbs prices do not fluctuate much in market like it does with vegetables, grains and cereals as most of them are sold directly to wholesalers, where the prices are constant and pretty standard through the year,” said George Gathuri, herbs and spices value addition manager at Helitech.

According to him some of these herbs had gone into extension as farmers turned to other crop production. However, of late farmers are taking the venture back upon realising its lucrative markets with stable market price as compared to other produce.

The CBO is currently supporting farmers in the area to grow the crops by giving them technical and financial support to buy seedlings and fertilisers among other farm inputs as a way of ensuring better planting materials and production.

The farmers grow chia, basil, fennel, fenugreek, thyme, rosemary, tarragon, mint and oregano among others which the CBO buys from them upon maturity and harvesting to produce powder, flaky, and some oils which they sell to various organic markets and hotels in Nairobi.

“We sell our products to ridgeways market, Pidium in Karen, Bridges Hotel, village open air markets and individuals who order for our products,” said Gathuri.

For bulk buyers, a kilo of any herb goes at Sh800 while others who buy in smaller quantities can spend up to Sh1,500 per kilo.

The CBO also advertise their products online through social media and farmer events such as field days with plans underway to form a sacco out of the CBO by June this year to enable them fully commercialise the venture.

“Operating under a CBO has been limiting our full potentials. We do not have our own machines to do value addition and instead we have been relying on support from the government agricultural institutions and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT),” said Gathuri.

The herbs are sent directly to wholesalers, who then repack them and send them out to their different consumers and our offer depend on demand.

Gathuri can be reached on +254 701 179490

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