Smart farms

: 24 September 2018; Hits: 11472

Government to provide 60 million pyrethrum seedlings to farmers to boost the crop production

africa business Kenya pyrethrum Farmers in a pyrethrum farm. Photo courtesy.

The government is planning to distribute 60 million pyrethrum seedlings to farmers in 19 counties beginning nest year in a bid to revive the sector which has been facing challenges for years now.

Kenya was the world’s leading producer of natural pyrethrum, providing 70 per cent of the global supply up to the late 1990s but beginning 2003, production started declining and Kenya lost the opportunity to Australia which took over the market with the island state of Tasmania taking over growing and processing in early 2000, according to a pyrethrum report from the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, efforts from county and national governments together with stakeholders have been in top gear to ensure the full revival of the sector.

Pushed by the latest market opportunities in United States and Asia, the government is now keen to support farmers to boost their production translating to up their income and the economy of the country.

The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mwangi Kiunjuri said that over four investors have approached the ministry seeking to buy dried pyrethrum flowers.

“We are not ready to let such an opportunity fade away and it is in this regard that we have decided to provide farmers with certified and subsidised seedlings by the start of the longs rains next year,” said the Kiunjuri.

The plan will relieve farmers from the high expenses of buying the seedlings. For a farmer to put an acre under pyrethrum, one requires more than Sh40m to buy seedlings.

“This is prohibitive and many cannot afford, adding that it is because of this reason that they have decided to distribute the certified and subsidised seedlings,” said the CS.

According to the CS, buyers are willing to purchase a kilogram of dried pyrethrum flowers from Sh200-Sh250 but Kenya is pushing for more.

The 19 counties that the ministry has already tested their soils and found them fit for growing of the crop include Nakuru, Kiambu, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Laikipia, Meru, Embu, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot, Trans Nzoia, Bungoma (Mt Elgon), Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Kericho, Bomet, Narok, Nyamira and Kisii.

In this plan the CS is optimistic that in collaboration with the county governments 15,000-20,000 acres will be under pyrethrum in the next one year.

Kiunjuri is now encouraging women and youth to take up the opportunity and earn good income from the venture.

“I am encouraging women and youth to join groups and acquire clonal splits from the ministry and grow them to earn a living and help in seeds multiplication,” he said.

Kenya has the potential to produce and process 20,000 metric tonnes (MT) of pyrethrum flowers to earn Sh7.5 billion for farmers per year and Sh5.8 billion in foreign exchange from refined extract alone.

With direct or indirect linkage to the crop that best grows at an altitude of 1,700 to 2,900 metres above sea level, it can provide a livelihood to three million people.

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Monday, 16 August 2021 [quote=Esther]Hi I am ESTHER from Olkalou Nyandarua where can I get the seedling...

Sunday, 15 August 2021 [quote=Zachary Mbugua]Where can one get seedlings in kiambu[/quote] Hi Zachary,...

Thursday, 29 July 2021 Where can one get seedlings in kiambu

Tuesday, 18 May 2021 Hi I am ESTHER from Olkalou Nyandarua where can I get the seedling for an acre p...

Tuesday, 13 October 2020 [quote=Charles Gikonyo]Where can one get pyrethlum seedling for a acre {Charles...

: 21 September 2018; Hits: 8642

How to make agribusiness work for women

farmer carrying banana Farmer carrying a bucnh of banana. Photo courtesy.

The African Green Revolution Forum 2018 has just ended in Kigali Rwanda. And befitting of the progress the country has made in gender equality and women’s empowerment – a day before the event the country held parliamentary elections and the proportion of women elected to parliament rose from 64 per cent – a group of organizations came together to put a spotlight on women in agribusiness.

At the meeting, I told the story of three women, Charity, Loise and Jane. In 2012, they founded Exotic EPZ Limited a company which processes macadamia nuts for export. When they decided to go into business together, nobody took them seriously. The banks said that as women with no property or land for collateral, they were too big a risk for a loan. The farmers they contacted were skeptical about women surviving in international trade, a business where “even men had failed”. But they were determined. They pulled together their savings, borrowed from friends and family. They started with 7.5 tonnes of shelled nuts each month.

They have now doubled that capacity and currently employ over 100 people, most of them women, and have created a market for thousands of smallholder macadamia farmers.

The story of Charity, Loise and Jane is about the huge opportunity that women agribusinesses present, but it is also a story of the challenges and gender barriers that women still face. Across the continent, 68 per cent of economically active women are in the agricultural sector.

The continent has the largest proportion of women entrepreneurs. However, no country in Africa has achieved parity in business ownership. Ghana has the highest proportion at 46.4 per cent of total businesses owned by women, followed by Uganda at 33.8 per cent and Botswana at 24.5 per cent.

And women still face numerous challenges in growing their agribusinesses. Despite expansion of microfinance organizations that are now reaching millions of women, research shows that the financing gap for women-owned small and medium enterprises is about $20 billion.

Women are still less likely to have bank accounts. In Zambia for example, only 26 per cent of women farmers have a bank account, compared to 49 per cent of men. And even when women apply for loans, they are less likely to be successful than men. SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship released a study on women-owned businesses that showed that while 59 per cent of businesses owned by women would like financing, only 25 per cent sought the finance. And of those 25 per cent, only 31 per cent were successful. What are the actions that we can take to grow women businesses.

First, we need to recognize that financial inclusion interventions are not gender neutral and the uptake and usage gaps would be reduced if products and services suited women’s needs and priorities. A lot of effort has been put into trying to make women bankable, training them, organizing them into groups among other interventions.

We need a paradigm shift. We now need to make financial institutions women- able. Financial institutions usually have products that have population-wide benefits (aimed at lifting all boats). And women have benefited from these.

But faced with gender barriers, there is need for innovations that meet the specific needs and priorities of women. Second, recognizing the multiple needs of women-owned businesses beyond financial inclusion and bundling services that they need.

Combining financial services, skills such as financial literacy, linking to business support services and mentoring can help women-owned business thrive and grow. Research that we have been funding at the United States International University in Kenya has shown that when you only offer skills training to business owners, the likelihood that their businesses will be successful is 57 per cent. This increases to 93 per cent when you combine training, mentoring and business support services.

Third, integrating women in national and global supply chains, integrating them as suppliers of raw materials, as aggregators and as processors is key to enabling women to thrive. In Kenya and Uganda for example, over 20,000 women smallholder farmers are supplying beans to a company that is doing industrial precooking of beans.

Jemimah Njuki, senior programme specialist, Canada’s International Development Research.

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: 20 September 2018; Hits: 12476

Scientist creates nutritional animal feed from Mathenge plant

Mathenge plant. Photo courtesy.

Margaret Syomiti, a researcher who has come up with an year round animal feed through transforming the invasive shrub prosopis juliflora, locally known as juliflora, into fortified feed blocks, at a time when erratic rainfall and unprecedented high feed prices have taken a toll on livestock farmers countrywide.

With farmers, particularly pastoralists, left with nothing to feed their livestock as pasture dwindle thanks to erratic rainfall and with prices of animal feeds hitting the ceilings, farmers are left with no choice but to sell their much cherished possessions, for a song. But Margaret’s discovery may put this worry to rest.

Studying the invasive shrub species,Prosopis juliflora, which is aggressively invading grazing lands and in some cases blocking access to water sources in Kenya she has finally found a good use for it.

By transforming Prosopis into fortified feed blocks, crushing the seeds so they cannot re-germinate, the technology has had the potential to slow the invasion of Prosopis in crucial grazing lands and give animals a more balanced, nutritious diet.

Produced using low cost technology, the fortified feed blocks improve feed intake and digestibility of poor quality feed resources that have become more common due to the ecological impacts of climate change.

Inexpensive and easy to transport, these blocks also open up entrepreneurship opportunities for women, who can manufacture them in areas of plenty and market them in areas of scarcity, sustaining livestock and economic vitality during dry seasons.

RELATED ARTICLE: Insects to supplement proteins in animal feed

Margaret Syomiti has already exhibited her product and technology at the United Nations Empower Women Share Fair in Nairobi.

Her project was selected from over a hundred entries by a team of 20 experts from the United Nations, research, academia, civil society and the private sector. The technology upon full approval will be commercialized.

As climate change pushes livestock farmers to desperation, farmers have been easily warming up to an invasive species they traditionally blamed for disfiguring of their animals’ jaws and which even attracted a low suit. Pastoralists in the arid Baringo district have been such farmers.

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