Smart farms

: 16 June 2022; Hits: 3414

Microsoft to deliver agri extension services through farmer’s phones

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By George Munene

Microsoft has developed the Kenya National Agriculture Platform to help farmers access extension and advisory services. The service will give farmers information from the agriculture ministry, government institutions, and the private agriculture sector.

Through an agriculture chatbot (#AgriChatBot), farmers will be able to freely access information on pest diagnosis, market prices, soil testing, advice on rearing a variety of crops, agriculture news, weather information, personalized input supply information, and messaging for farmer groups.

This will offer data-driven precise farming methods to farmers that will help increase their yields and profitability.

To access AgriChatBot send the word ‘MENU’ via WhatsApp to ‘0758318589’. Or send ‘MENU’ to the common code ‘40139’ on feature phones.

The platform which seeks to be a one-stop information hub for farmers will also feature successful farmer stories.

The partnership between the multinational tech company and the Ministry of Agriculture will provide smallholder farmers with this information through SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram.

“Through partnerships such as the one with Microsoft, we can offer our smallholder farmers valuable services that help them modernize and digitize age-old farming practices increasing productivity and boosting food security for our communities and country,” said Thule Lenneiye, Coordinator of Agriculture Transformation Office in the Ministry of Agriculture.

This forms part of the technology company’s plan to drive agriculture digitization in Africa to help the sector reach its projected one trillion dollar value by 2030.

Agriculture remains the largest employer for Kenyans, directly and indirectly accounting for 40 per cent of jobs in the overall population and 70 per cent of rural jobs.

The sector has however been blighted by marginal access to extension services (21 per cent of farming households access extension services), on and off-farm inefficiency (14 per cent of food is lost post-harvest), lack of traceability, and the proliferation of counterfeit inputs. All issues technology could help streamline.

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: 15 June 2022; Hits: 3157

Basic ways to improve soil fertility & health

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Farmers can easily improve their soil fertility and further prevent pests and diseases through rotations, cover cropping and the application of animal and plant materials as opposed to using chemical substances.

Recent researches show that plant resistance to insects and diseases is linked to optimal, chemical, physical and biological properties of soil.

According to a 2017 review on Current Status of Soil Contamination in Kenya published by International Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Analysis, the main sources of soil contaminations are anthropogenic activities are among other things synthetic chemical products.

Some of the main elements that can help reduce pest issues in soil include cleanliness, mulching, and proper cultivation, introduction of different organisms in the soil such as red worms, soil food web and increasing soluble nitrogen levels among others.

Research has shown that increasing soluble nitrogen levels in plants can decrease their resistance to pests, resulting in higher pest density and crop damage. For example, increased nitrogen fertilizer rates have been associated with large increases in numbers of aphids and mites.

In addition to supporting vigorous growth of plants better able to tolerate pest damage, healthy soils also contain many natural enemies of insect pests, including insect predators, pathogenic fungi, and insect-parasitic nematodes.

Another focus should be on increasing soil organic matter to improve soil structure and to provide food for soil microbes that in turn make nutrients available to plants.

Farmers should always rotate with cover and green manure crops in order to increase soil organic matter.

Manure and compost can also be added to supply organic matter and to provide supplemental nutrients.

Cultivation and tillage can be beneficial because it disrupts the life cycle of insect pests and can expose pests to predators and the elements.

However, excessive tillage can accelerate the decomposition of soil organic matter and deplete the food source that soil microorganisms depend on, decreasing their ability to disrupt pests. Excessive and untimely tillage can also contribute to soil erosion.

According to Oxfarm, dealer in farm inputs, whether organic or synthetic, mulches, can help reduce insect pest problems.

Plastic mulch is often used to speed early season crop growth that makes plants better able to tolerate insect feeding.

Reflective mulch repels thrips and aphids and can reduce the incidence of insect transmitted virus diseases in vegetable crops.

Study has shown that straw mulch can suppress early season pests activity by creating a micro-environment that increases the number of predators like ground beetles, lady beetles, and lacewings. Mulching with straw can also reduce the pests’ ability to locate plants.

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: 09 June 2022; Hits: 2953

Study: Newcastle vaccination in chicken leads to improved child growth

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By George Munene

A study has shown that vaccination against Newcastle disease in chickens increases flock size and egg hatch rate leading to a 24 per cent increase in consumption of high protein foods and improved child growth.

The research conducted over 18-months in rural Kenya showed that children from Newcastle vaccinated households had a 1.16 per cent increase in height--the critical metric for assessing childhood stunting. They also had a 0.54 per cent increase in weight compared to those from non-vaccinated homes.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study was conducted in over 500 households that owned chickens assessing the diet and growth parameters of over 700 children. It compared diets, heights, and weights of children from households that used the vaccine and parasite control drugs in their flocks to households that only used parasite control.

"We had noticed families who fed their children high-protein foods had better outcomes in terms of preventing stunted growth in children, and we wanted to look for ways to improve growth given the resources they already had," said researcher Dr. Elkanah Otiang, who led the studies as a Washington State University and University of Nairobi graduate student in his home nation under the Kenyan Medical Research Institute--Centre for Global Health Research in western Kenya.

The study showed that a low-cost readily available intervention--Newcastle vaccines cost Sh1000-500 and are administered in drinking water to the whole flock--can translate to a marked improvement in childhood growth.

This gives Kenyans an opportunity to improve the health of children and animals using existing resources without major lifestyle changes or financial burdens.

Source:

Otiang, E., et al. (2022) Vaccination of household chickens results in a shift in young children's diet and improves child growth in rural Kenya. PNAS.

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