Smart farms

International companies launch satellite imagery technology to help cocoa farmers up yields

Five international companies have launched an initiative that employs digital technology by use of satellite imagery to create digital individualized Farm Development Plans (FDPs) to increase cocoa farmers' yields to 1500kg/ha per year, triple the average of Ghanaian farmers for example through sustainable farming methods.

The Rainforest Alliance, Grameen Foundation, Touton, Satelligence and Waterwatch Projects created SATFarming that builds on a specialized agronomic model for cocoa that includes digital certification performance information. In Ghana, the integration of satellite imagery is expected to streamline the process of creating an FDP, facilitate monitoring, and provide greater insights into dynamic environmental conditions.

The Farm Development Plan (FDP) is a decision making and planning tool for smallholder cocoa farmers, and includes agronomic practices that they need to adopt as well as the financial investment needed to do so to increase their productivity to up to 1500 kg/hectare. It is a tool for field officers to assist cocoa farmers with increasing their productivity through monitoring, coaching, training and financial planning. The data required for the FDP is collected by field agents from large cocoa traders such as Touton and a process for doing is already in place.

Smallholder farmers produce the 80 per cent of the world's cocoa. While demand for cocoa is higher than ever, these farmers face persistent poverty, due in part to declining yields, low cocoa prices, and ever-mounting threats from climate-related pests and plant diseases.

Unfortunately, very few farmers receive timely information, training, or coaching and most lack financial means that could help overcome these challenges.

In Ghana for instance which is the second largest exporter of cocoa, yields last year were 700,000 tonnes, short of the forecasted 850,000 tonnes according to Cocobod Marketing Board, the country’s agency tasked with development of the crop. Cocoa beans are dried and used to make products such as butter used in the manufacture of drinking chocolate. It is also used to make moisturizing creams and soaps.

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cocoa

Cocoa. Courtesy

Technology, however, can offer a fast and scalable solution to guide farmers over a seven-year period. And now, in order to make the FDPs even more precise—and to deliver FDPs to even more farmers, the companies are announcing Ag-Tech Developer Challenge, a competition to create a remote sensing data product to support the mobile-enabled FDPs.

Acclaimed expert competition judges include Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist of Google; Kim Frankovich, Vice President of Cocoa Sustainability of Mars Inc.; Farouk Nyame, Technical Manager of the Cartography Unit in the Ghana Cocoa Board; and Daan de Vries, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of the Rainforest Alliance.

A grand prize of €100,000 ($115,000) and another of €75,000 ($86,000) will be awarded for implementing the idea, but all ideas will be considered for possible future engagement by the Rainforest Alliance.

Contest applicants will design their remote sensing product to be piloted with cocoa farmers in Ghana, where the alliance envisions reaching 30,000 farmers by the end of 2020. The remote sensing product eventually will be used for FDPs in other cocoa producing landscapes in Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and Nigeria as well, with the aim of reaching about 120,000 cocoa farmers globally.

Interested applicants can click here to learn about contest requirements and guidelines before the 15th of March 2019.

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Women group ventures into silkworm farming for steady and more income

silkworms

A group of women from western Kenya has ventured into silkworm production to make a steady and more income of about Sh75,000 each per month after replacing sugarcane with mulberry, the staple diet for silkworms.

Before its formation about 14 years ago, Kambogo Women's Group found in Rachuonyo, Homabay County had most of its members, who had not become part of the group, growing sugarcane which they had to wait for 18 months to begin earning as opposed to monthly income from silkworm.

The group learned about the venture from one of them, Pamela Onyango, who borrowed the idea from a farming group in Uganda before luring colleagues who saw the lucrative returns of the venture.

“I learned about silkworm production from Uganda and tried it out in a grass-thatched house having learnt the skill of egg production from a silk farming group in Buseni,” said Ms. Onyango.

To form the cocoon, she explains, silkworm larvae feed on mulberry leaves before climbing onto a twig placed nearby, where they spin their silken cocoons.

The group is currently comprised of 30 members with over 15 acres of mulberry bushes having acquired basic skills in rearing silkworms from the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

It has now commercialised its activities by selling the cocoons on a monthly basis to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) in Thika besides offering lessons at a fee to farmers who want to practice silk farming.

A kilo of silkworm cocoon goes at Sh2,500 and the groups is able to produce 10-30 kilos a month raking the group about Sh225,000 a month.

“Many people are now willing to practice silk farming because it is less tedious, yet it brings income on a monthly basis as opposed to other cash crops which take long to mature and farmers have to wait for at least a month before receiving their pay,” said Ms. Onyango who is now the group chairperson.

Economics

One acre of mulberry can yield up to 4 boxes of silkworms per cycle. With good quality silkworm hybrids and proper rearing skills, each box can produce an average of 20–30 kg wet weight of cocoons depending on weather conditions, which translates to 80– 120 kg of cocoons per cycle.

Assuming there are five rearing cycles a year, a farmer can produce 400–600 kg of cocoons, at US$ 3 per kilo, thus earning approximately US$ 1200–US$ 1800 annually.

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Starting off in silkworm farming

According to ICIPE, cultivating mulberry is the first step in sericulture (silkworm farming). Mulberry is grown using the vegetative plant parts, direct to the farm or in nursery beds. A minimum one-acre of mulberry is recommended for initiating for starters.

Before the onset of rains, the land is prepared by weeding, ploughing, digging, and levelling. Seven tonnes of farmyard manure per acre per annum is mixed with the soil. The mulberry cuttings are planted at the onset of the rains. The type of mulberry variety used depends on the climate and soil type.

If the soil is fertile, 5000 mulberry cuttings per acre in 3 x 3 feet rows are planted; but if the soil is less fertile, 11,000 cuttings per acre in 2 x 2 feet rows are planted. Only the mulberry cuttings that have 5 or 6 buds are selected.

On average, in 7 to 8 months, the new mulberry plants will have sufficient foliage to support rearing of one box of 20,000 silkworms. If the rains fail after planting, the land is irrigated once every 15 days. Pruning is recommended after the mulberry is one year old; and plants can, thereafter, support up to 4 boxes of silkworms. Subsequent pruning is done twice a year.

Rearing house and appliances

A rearing house, either of mud or wood should be at least 25 x 20 x 10 feet with adequate ventilation rearing the silk larvae.

This house should have the capacity to hold 2 to 3 boxes of silk larvae. The rearing equipment includes three-tier rearing wooden or bamboo bed racks for tray rearing, mountages, wooden or bamboo trays, knives, cleaning nets, baskets for collecting the leaves, a leaf chamber (4 x 3 x 2 feet), and ant wells to protect the larvae.

A high level of hygiene is required inside the house; and a disinfectant (2% solution of formalin and lime powder), is sprinkled on the doors before initiating rearing. In the first year, if the rains are favourable, one cycle of silk larvae rearing is possible. As one gains experience, 4 to 5 rearing cycles per year are achievable.

Egg incubation

Purchase silkworm eggs from high yielding bivoltine Bombyx mori hybrids sourced from a reputable silk larvae egg production grainage, where the eggs are stored at 3°C.

Prior to incubation and supply to farmers, eggs are removed from the cold storage and brought to room temperature.

These eggs should be transported to the rearing farm during the cool hours of the day, to avoid drying out. Eggs are incubated at 20 – 22°C for 5 days and 25 – 26°C for another 4 – 5 days at a relative humidity of 80%, with a cycle of 12 hours light: 12 hours dark so that 98% of the silkworm eggs hatch.

They are placed in a black box or covered with black paper, 24 hours before hatching, to ensure uniform embryonic growth. On the day of hatching, eggs are exposed to light.

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Monday, 06 June 2022 Indeed a lucrative business to venture in

Saturday, 24 April 2021 I live in Kiambu and am interested in silk worm rearing. Kindly assist

Government gives 48,000 subsidized chicks to farmers to raise income

Poultry farmers in Kakamega County have received 48,000 improved chicks from the County government in a bid to raise income at a time when76,000 farmers have abandoned sugarcane farming the county driven by failure of Mumias Sugar factory to pay them Sh600m dues accrued over the last two years.

In this, 120 farmer groups have received 400 one month-old chicks complete with a poultry disease schedule to guide them in the production. 92 per cent of households in Kakamega currently rear chicken but only for subsistence purposes. The county thus is promoting commercial poultry production.

Some of the groups that have benefited include Eshirimbe Tuinuke Community Based Organization, Murhanda Cooperative Group, Munchete Women’s Group, and Down Valley Women’s Group among others.

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chicks

Farmers examine kuroiler chicks. Courtesy

According to the Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers, cane planters in the region have uprooted the crop leaving only 20,000 farmers still engaged and as such the county is moving in to ensure farmers diversify their sources of income through chicken farming.

Besides cane, other crops grown in the county are maize, cassava, finger millet, beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, tomatoes, tea and sorghum.

Farmers will reap returns quickly from chicken farming compared to cane. Layers for instance take only three times to start laying eggs while broilers are ready for slaughtering at approximately 35 to 49 days. Sugarcane on the other hand takes one and half years to mature ready for harvesting.

Kenya has an estimated poultry population of 31m birds. Of these, 75 per cent consist of indigenous chicken, 22 per cent of broilers and layers and one per cent of breeding stock. The traditional chicken is mostly kept in rural areas while layers and broilers are mainly reared in the urban areas.

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