Smart farms

: 02 October 2018; Hits: 17795

Kakamega farmer earns over Sh90,000 a year from goat milk

An agripreneur, who shunned cattle because of limited land, is making more than Sh90,000 in a year from goat milk. He is rearing a dairy goat on a free-range model on a one-acre-mixed farm in Lurambi, Kakamega County.

Silvanus Shikanga chose to rear dairy goats in 2014 because they are non-selective in feeding. He started with one Alpine, but the number has risen to five.

The farmer rides on the higher nutritional value attached to goats’ milk than cows'. This factor is driving the demand high and he is unable to meet the demand.

Shikanga sells the produce to locals at Sh60 per litre, earning him Sh180 per day. In 2015, the goat, which he calls Jane, gave birth twice to twin nannies.

“I grow maize, beans, vegetables, bananas and other short season crops. Not much land space is left to sustain a dairy cow, which demands a lot of feeds. One of the goats is giving three to four litres of milk daily after feeding on green farm waste,” he said.

Gestation period for goats is five months or an average of 150 days. For the two seasons, he milked for eight months, earning him Sh28,800, according to the records.

In August the same year, he sold the first twins at Sh16,000 each at seven months. In January 2016, he sold the second twins at Sh17,000 each at eight months.

Jane has earned Shikanga a gross income of Sh94,800 in one year.

The five goats feed on farm weeds, vegetable remains as well as grass growing long the fences.

According to Patrick Nyauma, a Nyamira County-based animal health officer, resources needed to rear one dairy cow can support six goats.

Strict entry of farm records has helped him know the productivity of the five goats. Jane has been his case study-and it has performed well even without commercial feeds, Shikanga said.

Nyauma says one may require a minimum of about Sh60,000 to start rearing a heifer for dairy milk production. With no special housing demands, the farmer bought the first goat at Sh11,000 in 2014.

Apart from feeds, goats are tolerant to harsh environments as well as pest and diseases.

He has a buck, nicknamed Benja, which was voted the best in the Kakamega Agricultural Society of Kenya Show 2016.

His other flock is Munia, Sambi and Mumia, and they are all registered with the Dairy Goats Association of Kenya, where the history of every animal can be traced from.

Besides the rich mineral content of calcium, potassium, among others, dieticians say it is an immune booster other than having ‘smaller’ fat content when compared to cattle milk.

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: 01 October 2018; Hits: 15568

Kenyan entrepreneur wins global award for increasing farmers’ yields with solar energy

Dysmus Kisilu solar energy entrepreneur

Dysmus Kisilu, a Kenyan entrepreneur last week has won a Progress Award, in recognition of his efforts in providing smallholder farmers especially from rural Kenya with solar-powered agricultural tools and services upping their production.

The global award presented by Goalkeepers, a gathering of young world leaders, an event which was held on September 26, 2018, in New York, United States, on the occasion of the 73^rd General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). Three world leaders were honoured during the ceremony for their work in support of development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. Dysmus Kisilu represented African in the top three of the 2018 ranking.

Kisilu is the founder of Solar Gel, a company that provides small Kenyan farms (80 per cent female) with renewable energy services to increase agricultural productivity.

Solutions include irrigation kits and cold storage units, all powered by solar energy. To date, 3,000 women in rural areas have been equipped with these tools, increasing agricultural yields by more than 150 per cent compared to 2016.

“The idea is not only to increase yields, but also to make new generations aware of renewable energies,” said Kisilu.

RELATED ARTICLE: Markets open up to food solar drying project

To enable him reach many young people, Kisilu has also launched a project dubbed “Everyone, teaches, trains and wins”, through the Solar Freeze startup. This is an initiative to develop the next generation of leaders in renewable energy and smart agriculture in a context of climate change.

Currently the company supports young people aged 18 to 29 to train them in the operation, maintenance and repair of renewable energy equipment and in the transfer of skills in intelligent agriculture.

So far the programme has provided 100 young people with access to regular income through training.

Dysmus Kisilu is a product of the University of California in the United States. He quickly realised that renewable energy was a credible solution to boost the productivity of smallholder farmers and improve the living conditions of vulnerable people.

“Our company has also installed fully solar-powered refrigerators in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya to improve their living conditions and enable doctors to store their vaccines”, said the 25 years old entrepreneur.

Goalkeepers Awards is an annual ceremony that brings together young world leaders in New York. At the end of the conference-presenting ideas and initiatives in favour of development, the best are honoured by the Bill and Melinda-Gates Foundation, the initiator of this project. The challenge of the billionaire couple is to stimulate progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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: 01 October 2018; Hits: 19401

Varsity launches solar drier that preserves meat, maize, vegetables and fruits for up to one year

The University of Nairobi has launched a solar tunnel drier that can be used to dry meat, maize, vegetables and fruits for up to one year in a move aimed at enhancing value addition and boosting farmers’ income.

“The drier is used to dry one product at a time, so no products should be mixed while drying. In cold regions such as the central region, one can connect the system with power and therefore can be used to dry the produce throughout the year without worry,” said Dr. Catherine Kunyanga, a food specialist at UON.

The project has been launched in Isiolo to help pastoralists preserve camel and cattle meat and is more effective than sun drying as the produce dries evenly at the same time.

Local fabrication of the drier costs Sh600,000 and farmers can purchase it collectively to minimize costs.

Markets open up to food solar drying project

Farmer buys a cow from solar irrigation savings

Solar dryer photo Kenya 1200x640

Women drying vegetables with a solar drier. Courtesy

The drier will help farmers reduce post-harvest losses with a third of food produced locally lost every year due to poor storage according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

In 2017 for instance, Kenyan farmers lost 1.9m tonnes of food as they struggled to find markets.

Of the total food wasted, maize, Kenya’s staple food was the most affected with the country losing Sh29.6bn worth of the crop yet it imported another bunch worth Sh42bn.

Green bananas were the second most affected crop as farmers lost Sh24bn worth of the produce.

Other produce that went to waste due to poor storage and handling, transport, and fungi attack, according to data contained in the 2018 Economic Survey released in April, includes Irish potatoes (Sh19.7bn), milk (Sh12.4bn), beans (Sh11.5bn), ripe yellow bananas (Sh5.6bn), sweet potatoes (Sh3.5bn), tomatoes (Sh2.4bn), pineapples (Sh2.4bn), sorghum (Sh1.9bn), and millet (Sh1.6bn).

According to the survey, Kenya loses approximately a third of its produce yearly through post-harvest losses.

The drier will help maize farmers reduce the levels of aflatoxin by correcting the moisture content to below 13 per cent and hence can be stored for one year without going bad.

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