Smart farms

: 03 August 2022; Hits: 3607

Soil testing critical in getting maximum harvest

soilcares soil testing

Soil Cares expert explaining to farmers how soil testing scanner works. The soil testing equipment including scanners use infrared and Xray technology and provides results within 10 minutes.

Stationary soil testing laboratories, mobile laboratories and scanners by SoilCares Limited has enabled over 7, 000 farmers in not less than 13 locations in Kenya improve their crop and dairy farming productions since 2013 when the company started its operations in the country.

Working with the national and county governments, farmer groups, individual farmers and organisations, SoilCares apart from testing soil for farmers has managed to conduct 72 trainings for the farmers on how and why soil testing is key in farming.

“Currently we have over 25 successful stories of farmers sampled from across 13 locations in the country who practice horticulture farming, commercial and food crops production and dairy farming,” said Jacob Gathuru, SoilCares sales representative, Central Kenya during Central Kenya ASK show in Nyeri.

According to Gathuru, farmers currently have no need to collect and send soil samples to their laboratories then wait for days or even weeks for results, SoilCares scanners for example which are used in the fields provides farmers with real-time soil testing results, lime and fertilizer recommendations at a fee.

“All our soil testing equipment including scanners use infrared and Xray technology and within ten minutes our scanners are able to give the farmer soil fertility reports,” said Gathuru.

Fred Onyango is a maize farmer for ten years on his three acres plot in Homa Bay County and a beneficiary of SoilCares products. After sometime he realised his maize yields started reducing and however much he applied synthetic fertilisers, there was no change till he met SoilCares.

“Since I tested my soil with SoilCares I have seen faster, healthier and up yields from three to eight bags of maize every season,” Said Onyango.

Sylvia Gakiiru has been a dairy farmer for 16 years in Meru County. Her fodder and food crops had started turning yellow whenever he planted them. After soil testing with SoilCares and applying the recommended inputs Gakiiru says her crops are thriving enabling her feed well her family and dairy cows.

Nakuru County farmer Stephen Karanja who has grown potato for ten years but just harvesting between 15 and 20 bags of potatoes each season. Soil samples from his piece of land taken to SoilCares and tested indicated his soil lacked nitrogen and potassium. NPK 17:0:21 was recommended which he applied and the result is that Karanja is now harvesting 50 bags of potatoes from the same piece of land.

I am extremely delighted by to have potato production increased courtesy of SoilCares’ soil testing services which I can now seek whenever I notice something wrong with my crops affecting production,” said Karanja.

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: 03 August 2022; Hits: 6961

Young agronomist helping beginners navigate farming

james Nduati agronomist

A young but seasoned agronomist is rescuing many employed youths whose plight of embracing agribusiness as an extra income generating activity has seen their investment turn into white elephant projects.

In the past five years, agribusiness has been glorified with many agro input firms fronting new innovations and high yielding seed varieties. Peter Kabue the proprietor of Kaka Sungura Farm that is offering farm management services to busy part time farmers noted that many factors have contributed to the growing trend.

“The splashing of sweet success stories by media and increased persuasion from banks to offer agribusiness loans has motivated many working class population especially the youth to join the bandwagon effect of farming,” explained Kabue. Due to the fact that these people are faced with limited time, Kabue observed that a number of them resort to telephone farming techniques leaving their investments in the hands of inexperienced and impassionate shamba boys. The outcome of this arrangement has been complete failure with many farmers counting losses.

A perfect example of this scenario is Maina Muchiri a farmer from central Kenya who borrowed a Sh200,000 loan from a bank and invested it into rice and tomato farming. Since he was committed to a fulltime job in Nairobi, he enlisted the service of a Shamba boy who briefed him through mobile phone. After six months, Maina managed to only recoup Sh13000 from his Sh70,000 tomato investment and almost zero returns from the rice investment.

It is this trend of events that motivated Kabue to begin offering specialized farm management service. Under the organization of Kaka Sungura Farm, Kabue is now helping more ‘corporate farmers’ into agribusiness ventures. The idea is to help these people realize a return on their investments and ultimately prepare them for long-term agribusiness investments through the experience knowledge they gather from Kaka Sungura farm managers.

The team employs professionalism in the management process and takes the farmer through the whole farming process. Once we enter into a contract with a farmer, we give a detailed report on the feasibility of the crop in the area, the soil testing analysis, market report on the crop and timing. The farmer is then given a budget with a work plan which is aimed at helping him budget for the venture.

For instance Kaka Sungura Farm team budget for a one acre water melon ranges from Sh80,000 to120,000 depending on the location. This cost covers all the inputs and the management until the crops mature for harvesting. According to Kabue this is commercially feasible given that the returns per acre ranges between 20-25 tonnes with farm gate price of a kilo at Sh30. After successful experiments in Kitengela early last year, the team is now offering management services to over five farmers.

Two of their clients are outside Kenya with one running a successful 3 acre water melon project in Mwingi. The clients are based in UAE and Germany respectively but have constant monitoring of the projects through reports and briefing from the team and their contact persons in the country.

Another beneficiary of this initiative is Gerogina after being disappointed through several care takers in the village for her investment has hired the services of Kaka Sungura team. She met the team through referrals and is now doing a 2 acre farming of onions in Ngoliba.

According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report in 2013 titled the role of the farm management specialist in extension, farm management extension is ideal for realization of growth in the agricultural sector as it empowers farmers with management strategies and skills for improved decision-making in the use of resources and linking farmers to markets. This is in line with what Kabue is offering to farmers. “With the increasing market-orientation of farming, the decisions taken by farmers are more complex; for farms to compete they must be run as a business. This creates a demand for specialized extension support. To be successful farmers need the skills to produce what the market wants and what satisfies consumers,” added the report.

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: 03 August 2022; Hits: 3631

Maize farmer doubles production by embracing expert advice

conventional farming in kenya maize

Sadik Sadique, a maize farmer from Trans Nzoia County is has been able to double his crop production by adopting new methods of planting which include increasing spacing and adopting soil testing to determine fertiliser ratio following experts’ advice.

In 2016 used to produce 500-600 kilos per acre from his 700 acres farm but this changed in 2017 when he consulted agronomists from, a company that was established in 1989 in East Africa continues to change the lives of many local farmers in the area.

His production has since doubled to 1000-1500 kilos per acre.

“When Cropnuts experts first visited my farm, I was planting 2-3 plants per meter and they increased it to 4-6 plants per meter which translate to 24,000 plants per acre this is some of the changes they made together with carrying out soil test and advising on the best ratio for applying fertilizer,” said.

Besides giving expert advice to small-scale farmers to help them get more crop yield from their farms, the company also offers farm inputs at a fee.

“We use Sunbelt farm as a model to show what successful modern farming is. Modern farming, in this case, means abandoning traditional methods of thinking around farming and allowing experts who understand the science of farming to handle your agricultural needs. Sunbelt farm went through a very difficult time where they were making losses and Sadique contacted us to navigate their challenges,” says Ian Mutua a Cropnuts agronomist.

Towards the end of 2016, Sadique’s farm just like majority of maize farmers in Kenya was attacked by the fall armyworms that made him realize a big dip in the produce of that year. Later on, in 2017 Sadique decided to look for expert help to mitigate the problem at hand.

“Cropnuts came in and showed us what we were doing wrong and they helped us correct it. Some of the challenges we faced were, low plant population, weed pressure, pests, fungal disease, wrong timing of farm activities and poor crop nutrition. With all these challenges, the farm only managed to harvest six bags per acre in 2016. In 2017 however, the story was different and they recorded a tremendous increase to 32 bags per acre in the harvest and continue to do so,” said.

According to Sadique, the Cropnuts agronomist visits the farm at least twice a week to see the progress of his crops. “Once you seek for Cropnuts advice they carry out routine soil tests, nitrogen fertilizer recommendations, soil healthcare program, and soil life test throughout a farmers contact with them.”

“In Cropnuts, we’ve really got someone to support us whenever we got emerging crop issues that need urgent Agronomic assistance,” says Babuh.

The involvement by Cropnuts led the farm to harvest 32 bags per acre from six bags per acre. As Sadique admits, taking up modern methods of farming through expert advice is how to reap maximum benefits and profits from your farm.

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