Mercy of Nature to Feed Self

Environmental experts tell us that only 20% of the country receives adequate rainfall in any good year; meaning the rest 80% is perennially water starved.

It is unfortunate, though, that, we have created cyclic pattern, where every few years, the country is brought down to its knees by drought and the attendant famine and water crisis. Environmental experts tell us that only 20% of the country receives adequate rainfall in any good year; meaning the rest 80% is perennially water starved. Yet the country has put itself at the mercy of nature to feed itself such that in the event of diminished rains, we are hit with monumental crisis.

We must confront the current crisis urgently but move beyond such knee-jerk reactions since we can plan and guarantee food security through irrigation and modern farming methods; and safeguard the So what goes wrong? When shall Kenya have enough food?

Way Forward
The allure of mega-farms as solution to food security persists. You can count on a few white elephant schemes in the making, and our own is looking like a prime candidate. Food security is seldom ever a production problem.

Food security is defined as availability, accessibility, adequacy and acceptability of food. Each of these requirements is important for example; pork, beef and meat are not acceptability criteria for Muslims, Hindus and Vegetarians respectively. We have two types of food insecurity in Kenya, chronic and episodic. What we are experiencing now is episodic type but ordinary times, close to half of Kenyans are malnourished and a quarter would afford to meet the daily calorific requirements at all times. The vast majority of our food insecure are poor rural households, that is, food producers. Even now, we have not heard of urban poor being fed, In essence then, our food insecurity problem is poverty problem.

Government Policy
There must be deliberate political and policy shift to other ways and means of ensuring food is available, accessible and affordable. True, setting aside a tenth of the budget for agriculture is a big deal for poor countries often faced with competing priorities. But success in agriculture reduces the pressure to finance solutions to social problems caused by hunger and poverty. Putting money into agriculture is a smart investment.

County Governments
Community ownership in irrigation and water management will be crucial and this brings into focus the role of county governments in driving agriculture as a devolved function.

Smallholder farmers, who hold over 80 percent of all farms in Kenya, are struggling to adapt to rapidly rising temperature and erratic rains. These farmers are now facing the risk of being overwhelmed by the pace and severity of climate change.

Farmers are already contending with an increase in average temperatures, with further increases of between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees centigrade expected by 2050.

Despite a decade of pro-growth and food security policies and millions are chronically malnourished with some dying of hunger. As climate change turns up the heat, the country’s food security and its ability to generate economic growth that benefits poor - most of whom are farmers - depends on the ability to adapt to more stressful conditions.

There is severe drying across the country hence need to adopt technologies and “climate-smart agriculture” that will help make crops more resilient to future extreme weather events. Forget “blanket” advice about soil health Erratic farming practices (such as the failure to apply mineral or organic fertilizers), and soil erosion, are depriving croplands across the country of 30-80kg per hectare of essential plant nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen.

Soil Scientists’ says the country should not only engage to reverse the current trend of low crop productivity and land degradation, but also forget blanket recommendations regarding fertilizer applications to their soils. Fertilizer promotion programmes are often unsuccessful because they are designed with a “one-size-fitsall” philosophy - failing to recognize the diversity of production systems and the range of farmers’.

To keep the soil healthy, farmers should apply the right fertilizer at the right time, and in the right way at the right time as the soil types in the county, or even within a given country, are not the same. There is need to lose the usual blanket recommendations. Kenyans need to map their soil and, in the case of some regions, should update their maps. Mapping would be “crucial” to know exactly where fertilizers should be applied or not. “In cases where there is no deficiency of some nutrients, farmers should not end up losing investments in fertilizers.

Affordable and Accessible Agrochemicals and Fertilisers
As a nation we have to decide whether we want to develop a vibrant pesticide industry to effectively support farming or kill it all together. As it is we are slowly but surely killing the industry by saddling it with taxes and levies.

The 2013 VAT act introduced 16% on all imported ingredients of pest control products for local processing or formulations.

In addition to VAT, the active ingredients, carrier materials, solvents and emulsifiers attract an import duty and 25% excise duty for imports. Local formulators incur VAT on these substances as well as on packaging materials, labour and transport.

The negative impact is evident. This is directly pushed to the farmer. This becomes tough for farmers to coax their shambas and produce enough for consumption and extra for sale. We must therefore acknowledge that this is slowly killing the industry through reduction of usage of farm inputs hence compromising the yields. This in turn has a major effect on food security, leading to a litany of socio-economic and political implications.

A proper policy on reduction of fertiliser costs is very important. It should involve supply chain management, blending and manufacturing of fertiliser. This will require multiple initiatives especially farmer’s capacity building, correct estimates of annual fertiliser usage, efficient procurement and distribution systems, storage and transport.

It is clear therefore that a significant investment in agriculture is key to resolving our challenges in food self sufficiency, employment, economic development of ASALs and the condurum around land ownership and land management.

Fertilizer use in Kenya remains low compared to other regions, with average use at around 10kg per hectare, while the global average is over 100kg per hectare. Kenya needs to work on two areas to improve the current situation.

First is to improve the logistics around fertilizer distribution, about 40 percent of the cost of fertilizer in Kenya is due to transport from ports of entry to the farmer. Secondly, there is need to have farmers improve their financial access to fertilizer. The private sector’s increasing participation in fertilizer programmes, from procurement to transportation of fertilizers to various outlets, is a “courageous effort” to change smallholder farming.

Government should introduce a large-scale national programme to subsidize agricultural inputs (mainly fertilizers for maize production), targeting more than 1.5 million farming families. The result will be increased maize production and real incomes.

Introduce new crop varieties
While it is important that the country moves out from dependency on rain-fed agriculture maize, investments in better information technology and modern agro-technologies to increase production, preservation and better use of food, investment in high value seeds is inevitable. Without value addition is of little value.

The stagnant state of commercial seed production is often cited as a key reason why yields per hectare in Kenya for staple crops like maize are up to 80 percent below what farmers outside Africa achieve.

According to sector players, more work is needed to improve seed systems in Kenya, through encouraging local research institutes and locally-owned seed companies, and installing mechanisms to reach farmers with the “improved” seeds.

After attempting to tweak their seed system, large scale farmers have seen positive results in identifying and breeding seeds that are suitable for planting in a particular environment. Most farmers who invested in improved crop varieties achieved yields 50 to 100 percent above local varieties.

Get the youth involved
Agriculture contributes one-quarter to one-third of Kenyan GDP but employs 65 to 75 percent of the labour force. The worrying factor is, African youth see agriculture as an “outdated, unprofitable” profession. More investment is needed in rural and food sector entrepreneurship, particularly among Kenya’s growing youth population, for the country to achieve food security.

Experts agree that the youth should be informed more about the benefits of this opportunity. This can be achieved through vocational and business management training for the youth, adequate and affordable financing for starting and growing enterprises, and by creating enabling environments for entrepreneurship on an individual and collective basis.

Make use of the “brilliance of women”
Female small scale farmers dominate the agricultural landscape in most production environments in Kenya. Yet they constitute the majority of rural actors locked in socio-cultural structures that limit their agricultural productivity, efficiency and effectiveness at all points across the value chain.

The issues of equity should be embedded in all aspects of agricultural production. Women are too often left out of decision-making processes and food security will not be successful if “we continue to deny the talent and brilliance of the women who comprise 50 percent of our population.”

Only 55 percent of women in Kenya are literate, compared to 70 percent of men; about 35 percent of women achieve higher education. By focusing on building the capacity of young people and women in particular, Kenya will be able to increase the productivity of a large proportion of their labour forces.

Manage more water, irrigate more land
Irrigation reduces reliance on rainfed agriculture. Several delegations have visited Israel to learn what they do. But to date no tangible benefits have accrued from the visits. Four years ago, the government invested in Galana/ Kulalu, it is still in its infancy. Another project in Turkana has also gone begging. Invested at the household and community level, the Galana/Kulalu billions would be enough money to get each and every one of these households out of food insecurity.

It is perhaps time to look for alternative ways to approach irrigation. It may involve investments in small dams using supplementary irrigation systems to reduce energy running costs. Only 4 percent of Kenya’s crop land is irrigated, according. The rest depends on increasingly erratic rainfall. But water management can mean much more than irrigation.

Water productivity in agriculture will be affected by climate change as more active storm systems emerge. Greater variability in rainfall is expected, which will increase the risks of dry-land farming. The demand for irrigation will grow [in terms of area] and irrigation water use on existing crop areas will increase due to greater evaporative demand. The water resources available for irrigation will become more variable, and could decline in areas with low rainfall.

Total agriculture land increased by some 8 percent in the last decade, while the irrigated area remained stable, after a steady increase 1960 to 2000.

However, agricultural productivity can be greatly increased through integrated watershed management that takes into account the full water budget for an area, as well as its use, output, and cost/benefit ratio.

Accordingly, collecting rain in ponds or barrels, and other “rain harvesting” techniques, offers a simple but underused low-technology approach to climate change, harvesting only 15 percent of the country’s rain would more than meet the water needs of the country. Rainwater harvesting for underground storage, for instance, could be “used for supplemental irrigation of high value crops”.

Follow climate-smart mechanization
Motorized equipment in Kenya contributes only 10 percent of farm energy, compared to 50 percent in other regions. Mechanization can improve productivity and nutrient use efficiency, reduce waste and add value to food products. But progress in this area, scientists note, should be based on energy efficient innovations, including the use of alternative energy like solarpowered irrigation pumps, and supported by better training and repair services and by strong farmers’ organizations.

Mechanization “isn’t all about great big machines, but small machines that smallholders can use”. But the point is that they need to be made, and that often requires young workers; they need to be repaired and that creates jobs; and in this case the machines go from farm to farm, which involves yet another service.

Reduce post-harvest losses
Post-harvest loss is the most unanswered and ignored challenge to food insecurity in Kenya, with losses exceeding 30 percent of total crop. Simple solutions such as training farmers on post-harvest handling, food management training on appropriate pre-and post-harvest handling operations and improving market access and knowledge of market requirements would significantly reduce losses.

Famers need to have “better access to storage facilities” and access to new technologies to reduce losses, which exceed the total amount of international food aid provided to the country annually.

Additionally, it is also important to:
Halt farmland expansion.
Reduced land clearing for agriculture, particularly in the rainforests, achieved using incentives, such as payment for ecosystem services, certification and ecotourism, can yield huge environmental benefits without dramatically cutting into agricultural production or economic well-being.

Close yield gaps.
Many parts of the country have “yield gaps” caused by farmland that is not living up to its potential for producing crops. Closing these gaps through improved use of existing crop varieties, better management and improved genetics can increase current food production nearly 60%.

Use inputs more strategically.
Strategic reallocation could substantially boost the benefit we get from precious inputs. Water, nutrients and agricultural chemicals are used too much in some areas and not enough in others.

Shift diets.
Growing animal feed or biofuels on top croplands, no matter how efficiently, is a drain on human food supply. Dedicating croplands to direct human food production could boost calories produced per person by nearly 50%. Even shifting non-food uses such as animal feed or biofuel production away from prime cropland could make a big difference.

Reduce waste.
One-third of the food farms produce ends up discarded, spoiled or eaten by pests. Eliminating waste in the path food takes from farm to mouth could boost food available for consumption by another 50%.

Seedco Launches Kiminini Plant 43

It was pomp and dance to cereal growers as Mr. Andrew Khaemba, Governor Trans Nzoia County stepped forward to declare the new state the art seed processing facility officially opened and welcome the entry of a new processing plant. “From today, farmers have many options to choose from including quality African Seed Company (Seedco Ltd) varieties as they prepare their seed procurement programs, he said. Adding, “this must be a dream come true for not only farmers but also the county, which is calling on more investors to invest in the area”. This must also have been the realization of those who attended the opening of the new ultra modern state of the art facility at Kiminini, Kitale in Uasin Gishu County.

The launch came with an almost audio-recorded oratory of Mr. Kassim Juma, not previously heard in the region. Speaking during the launch, Mr. Kassim said, “the state of the art facility on the outskirts of Kiminini town is alive with new developments in agriculture. The space is home to Agri-Seed Company (Seedco Ltd), a company that created seed techniques that promises to deliver a beautiful bumper harvest and lead in the front to deliver Kenya from food insufficiency to food surplus”.

The fully equipped and automated production unit aims to grow and deliver a steady, yearround supply of seeds. The Company also aims to package the know-how and cloud services resulting from this business and deploy them throughout the region.

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Canola: An Ideal Breakthrough for Growing Your Profitability

“It will reduce weed, pest and disease management expenditures”, says Jason Kamunya

During continual monoculture of barley or wheat, yield progressively declines due to a build of weed, pest, and disease problems. Soil health and soil biology also declines which results in nutrient release generated by soil bacteria and fungi being reduced. The residues from your previous crop take a longer time to break down thus providing a greater source of disease carry over and an unhealthy environment for the seed of the next crop.

“One of the compelling answers to this situation is to introduce a broad leaved crop into your crop," cycle and thus create a simple rotation. Canola is an ideal break crop, says Jason Kamunya.

Disease clean up: Canola has a totally different disease spectrum and thus breaks the carry over cycle of the barley and wheat crop. When the following cereal crop is grown the fungicides will have a chance to perform better and improve disease control compared to a monoculture situation.

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The Biggest Challenge Facing Cereal Farmers

The cereal farming is entering into a period of rapid change due to famine, droughts and climate change. Nationally, crop production will increase, with minimal land expected to be cultivated. As these challenges continue to grow, so does the need for talented employees.

Therefore, good people management practices are critical to raising productivity and for adding value to the cereal industry. For farmers who have built up a strong business over many years and largely through working on their own, it will be difficult to change the mind-set to sharing power and giving responsibility to others. There is a real worry that farmers will burn out in this new era unless they effectively upskill on good people management skills. The industry must realise that it has to invest in people and realise that this is a long-term project.

“It takes two years to build a farm, it takes ten years to build the capacity in a person to run that farm” – (Interview -Stuart Taylor NZ)

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