Smart farms

: 17 May 2018; Hits: 8357

Fresh produce supplier receives $100,000 grant from global social impact programme Expo Live to grow farmers’ reach

Selina Wamucii 2 fresh produce supplier Photo courtesy

Selina Wamucii, a mobile platform that shortens the agricultural supply chain in Kenya, reducing food wastage and boosting farmers’ incomes, is set to get a $100,000 (approximately Sh1m) major boost from global social impact programme Expo Live, run by organizers of the next World Expo, Expo 2020 Dubai.

Some 60 per cent of food produced by smallholder farmers in Africa never reaches the market due to supply chain inefficiencies. Selina Wamucii’s mobile platform aims to improve the agricultural supply chain by enabling buyers and exporters to source fresh produce directly from smallholder farmers, even without access to the internet.

By shortening the supply chain, Selina Wamucii’s mobile platform passes efficiency savings on to both smallholder farmers and buyers, while ensuring a greater proportion of fresh produce reaches the market.

Oroko said: “Both Gaita and I saw the challenges faced by our parents so we studied to become engineers and decided to use our knowledge to help farmers. By enabling users to buy seedlings and better equipment, our platform is helping farmers to become self-sufficient.

“Some of our mango farmers have increased their incomes by 60 per cent, allowing them to pay for medical bills and their children’s school fees. We also see smallholders investing their money back into the farm to increase yields.”

The solution digitises the entire supply chain without requiring farmers to have access to smart phones or the internet. Smallholder farmers can register on the platform by dialling a code from their mobile phones. Selina Wamucii then collects data relating to location, produce type, volume and projections to match farmers with the right buyers.

When large-scale exporters place orders, Selina Wamucii sources produce from farmers according to their location. The company contracts agents to collect and deliver the harvests, as well as to train and monitor registered farmers.

More than 3,000 smallholder farmers are registered with Selina Wamucii. The company said mango farmers who were previously earning $100 per year are now making an average of USD 160 per year.

Selina Wamucii will use the Expo Live grant to further develop its mobile platform and to acquire best practice and organic certifications to open up new markets and achieve even better prices for farmers.

The grant will also be used to recruit an additional 2,000 farmers to the platform, enabling Selina Wamucii to more than double its acceptance rate for buyers’ requests from the current 2.4 per cent to at least 5 per cent.

Selina Wamucii was founded in June 2015 by John Oroko and Gaita Kariuki, both of whom were born and raised in smallholder families. The company is named after the co-founders’ mothers.

Expo Live is Expo 2020 Dubai’s innovation and partnership programme and has an allocation of USD 100 million to back projects that offer creative solutions to pressing challenges that impact people’s lives or help preserve the planet – or both. Organisers are looking for projects that would not reach their full potential without its support.

Launched in January 2017, Expo Live has several programmes. The flagship global Innovation Impact Grant Programme provides up to USD 100,000 per successful initiative, to be made available incrementally as the project meets ongoing conditions. Projects are also supported with business guidance and promotion, and may have the chance to showcase their work to many millions of visitors at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Yousuf Caires, Vice President – Expo Live at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Selina Wamucii addresses all of Expo 2020 Dubai’s subthemes – Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability – by enhancing opportunities for farmers, reducing food waste by improving access to fresh produce, and contributing to a more sustainable agricultural industry.”

He continued: “Expo Live is based on a firm belief that innovation can come from anywhere to everyone. This is a major component of our redefinition of what a World Expo can and should do: tap into its convening power well before the event to enable problem-solvers around the globe to promote innovation and build partnerships that leave a lasting legacy not only in the UAE and the region but across the world.”

Selina Wamucii is the latest Kenyan project to benefit from Expo Live, after Eco Fuels Kenya, a start-up that is using oil from the nuts of croton trees to produce energy, received a grant during the programme’s first cycle.

Expo 2020 Dubai will take place from 20 October, 2020 to 10 April, 2021 and will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region. It will be a festival of human ingenuity that gives a glimpse into the future, guided by its three pillars: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.

To date, Expo Live’s Innovation Impact Grant Programme has attracted more than 2,300 applicants from 136 countries. Following a rigorous evaluation process, which included live presentations in Dubai, 70 grantees from 42 countries have joined Expo Live’s community of Global Innovators, including these new members from the third cycle.

ABOUT EXPO 2020

Expo 2020 Dubai is guided by the belief that innovation and progress are the result of people and ideas combining in new ways. For six months from 20 October, 2020, Expo aims to bring together 180 countries and millions of people to celebrate human ingenuity: ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’.

During the six months from 20 October, 2020 to 10 April, 2021, we expect millions of people to visit Expo

About 70 per cent of all visitors are anticipated to come from outside the UAE – the largest proportion of international visitors in Expo history

We aim to create and deliver an inclusive and global Expo with more than 200 participants, including nations, multilateral organisations, businesses and educational institutions

Expo 2020 also has an ambitious volunteer programme, which aims to include more than 30,000 volunteers from a wide range of ages, nationalities, cultures and backgrounds

The Expo site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area. It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South

Expo 2020 Dubai is the first World Expo to take place in the MEASA (Middle East, Africa and South Asia) region

Visit: www.expo2020dubai.com

ABOUT WORLD EXPOS

In 1851 the Crystal Palace was the centrepiece of London’s Great Exhibition – the first World Expo. It celebrated the man-made industrial wonders of a rapidly changing world. Architecture, contents and a theme, ‘Industry of All Nations’, coalesced to create a big idea of nations meeting nations in shared technological and commercial progress.

In more recent years, participants in World Expos, including governments, international organisations and companies, have gathered to find solutions to universal challenges and to promote their achievements, products, ideas, innovations, their national brand, and their nations as destinations for tourism, trade and investment.

World Expos are held under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation responsible for overseeing and regulating international exhibitions (‘Expos’) and for fostering their core values of Education, Innovation and Cooperation .

Today, four types of Expos are organised under the BIE’s auspices: World Expos, Specialised Expos, Horticultural Expos and the Triennale di Milano.

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: 16 May 2018; Hits: 8021

Government moves to pay outstanding debt for maize farmers

Maize farmers across the country will start receiving payments for outstanding arrears on the produce that was delivered to the National Cereals and Produce Board depots in various towns such as Eldoret and Nakuru for the 2017 harvest season.

The National Treasury headed by Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said the government has released the money and is currently at the agriculture ministry.

The farmers mostly from Kenya’s bread basket of the North Rift region had supplied more than 3.8m bags of maize to NCPB worth five billion shillings.

This year, NCPB paid farmers Sh3200 per a 90kg bag of maize up from Sh3,000 in 2017.

Maize production to decline by 30 per cent as farmers face shortage of two million bags of fertilizer

Flour companies urgently buying maize from all-comers

“Most of the farmers in Uasin Gishu and Nandi have reduced the number of acreage of maize by half due to delay in payments and this may cut maize production this year by 30 per cent,” said Kipkorir Menjo, the Director, Kenya Farmers Association, Eldoret.

In 2017, Kenya’s maize production declined due to drought and fall armyworm invasion which was detected across 27 counties resulting in losses of up to $120m according to the United States department of agriculture.

The country produced 35.2m bags in the 2015/16 season down from 37.1m bags in the 2016/17 planting season.

maize harvesting

A maize farmer harvesting his produce in the past. Photo: courtesy

In this, Uasin Gishu, maize production from 4.4m bags recorded in 2016 to 3.7m bags last year representing a 25 per cent drop occasioned by outbreak of fall armyworm and maize smut disease.

In Trans Nzoia, the production plummeted from five million bags in 2016 to 4.7m bags in 2017.

Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia counties combined produce over 40 per cent of Kenya’s total maize production and are thus considered the country’s grain baskets.

According to the ministry of agriculture, Kenya consumes at least three million bags of maize monthly with approximately 70 per cent of the population dependent on agriculture.

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: 15 May 2018; Hits: 10525

Kenya farmers grow yields and income with conservation agriculture

Conservation agriculture Kenya

Photo courtesy

Smallholder farmers in Kenya are increasing maize yields and have reduced production risk by 30 per cent thanks to a conservation agriculture project.

Declining soil fertility in recent years, increasing soil erosion and droughts due to climate change, have dipped farmers’ yields which has contributed to a rise in poverty and hunger.

Maize is a staple crop for the country, and legumes an important dietary protein source for the rural poor. To sustainably increase the yields of these crops, and to engage the poorest and most vulnerable within the sector, a food security project – the Sustainable Intensification of Maize Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) – was launched in eastern and southern Africa in 2010.

SIMLESA aims to improve soil health and drive yield increases by encouraging the adoption of ‘conservation agriculture’ (CA)-based methods, such as zero tillage, crop residue retention, and the production of improved fodder crops. By implementing such strategies, the project aims to increase maize legume productivity and reduce production risk by 30% within the decade.

In 2010, Ferdinand Wangila Makhanu from Bungoma County, western Kenya, was an average smallholder struggling to support his family with meagre harvests from his 2 acre farm. However, his fortunes began to change in 2010 when he was invited to a neighbour’s farm where the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) was demonstrating CA-based techniques to sustainably intensify the production of maize and legume crops. Out of curiosity, he began to copy what he had seen. “The personal challenges I faced meant I could not be suspicious (of CA),” says the father of eight.

When using traditional practices, the most Ferdinand had been able to harvest was six 90 kg bags of maize, and less than one bag of beans from 1 acre of land. However, after adopting the CA-based sustainable intensification techniques, such as spraying herbicide to prepare his land as opposed plowing, digging holes only where seeds were to be planted to reduce soil erosion, and retaining crop residue on his fields to increase soil nutrients, Ferdinand obtained 15 bags of maize and 2 bags of beans from 1 acre of farmland. Years later, he now achieves 30-35 bags of maize per acre, and predicts his yields will continue to increase as the organic matter of his soil improves due to retaining crop residue. “CA-based intensification is the right direction for my farming and I’m sticking with it,” he says.

Ferdinand has also been able to decrease his on-farm production costs. From spending up to KSH 4,500 (US $45) per acre to plow his land, he now spends just KSH 500 (US $5) per acre on herbicides to remove the weeds. “My wife used to struggle when digging to get rid of couch grass, but one round of spraying is enough to get rid of all the weeds, and it takes little time,” Ferdinand explains. He estimates that the SIMLESA techniques have also reduced his labor costs by 60% since he no longer has to hire farm hands.

Conservation agriculture

Photo courtesy

Prior to his involvement with the project, Ferdinand used to burn his crop residue or feed it to his livestock, however, maintaining the residue on his land has enabled him to produce an extra maize harvest each year because his soil is healthier. “In drier areas, CA practices improve soil-moisture retention when compared to practicing conventional tillage, and thus, crops do better,” says Charles Nkonge, country coordinator for SIMLESA-Kenya. Ferdinand has also been able to diversify his production thanks to his healthier soil and now grows more nutritive legume crops in addition to maize, like pigeon pea, lablab, velvet bean, soybean and cowpea.

Ferdinand is part of a 50-member innovation platform, knowledge sharing and action group, which has enriched his farming methods. “Before, I was a farmer with a narrow focus, but as part of the platform, we have exchange visits and share agricultural information,” he says. Prior to joining the platform, Ferdinand explains that he used to plant crop varieties without knowing which suited the agronomic conditions of his area, but since receiving training from KALRO through the platform, he is now aware of the varieties that will produce the best yields under the local soil and weather conditions.

Input companies like Twiga Chemicals Industries Ltd are keen to work with the platform because in a group, farmers are better able to pool resources to purchase the inputs. Within the innovation platform, farmers can also receive products at discounted rates, as it is expected that they will tell other farmers about the benefits of using such inputs. “They give us pesticides or herbicides for free to test, and sell to us at subsidized prices,” says Ferdinand, who explains that buying as a group from these companies saves farmers Sh200 to 300 on some products.

“While initially my farming was unprofitable, today I have money in my pocket and I am a local role model” he added.

The innovation platform has popularized exploits of standout farmers like Ferdinand to the media. After an appearance on the East African agricultural TV program Shamba Shape Up in 2017, 50 farmers from Busia County, 74 km away, came to visit Ferdinand to learn about CA-based intensification. “They have all adopted it,” he says. Ferdinand also gets paid by farmer groups in other regions to train them on CA due to his farming success. “While initially my farming was unprofitable, today I have money in my pocket and I am a local role model,” he says.

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