Buying into New Seed

Mary Nzau enters a mock agrodealer shop set up on a field on the outskirts of Tala town in Machakos County, Kenya. On display are nine 2kg bags of hybrid maize seed. She picks one. By the look of it, her mind is made up. After a quick scan of the shelf, she has in her hand the variety that she has been purchasing for years.

Regina Mbaika Mutua is less lucky. The variety she always buys is not on display in the mock shop. As part of the experiment, the research team has removed from the shelf the variety she indicated she usually buys. The team’s goal is to observe what factors influence her seed purchase decision in the absence of the variety she was expecting to purchase.

“Although I did not find the variety I was looking for, I picked an alternative as I have seen it perform well on a neighbouring farm,” Mutua says, adding that she will plant it this season alongside recycled (farm-saved) seed on her one-acre farm.

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Can We Reduce Fertilizer use Without Sacrificing Food production?

Fertilizers help us to achieve higher crop yields. This is an obvious net positive for humans: farmers can produce and earn more, and the world has more food.

Fertilizers can increase crop yields. This not only offers important benefits for farmer incomes and food security, but also produces environmental benefits by reducing our demands for farmland. Many countries would benefit from using more fertilizer.

When they’re over-applied, they can also become an environmental pollutant. We might assume that there is nothing we can do: that to achieve higher yields we need more inputs and therefore necessarily cause more pollution. But the research shows that this is not necessarily true. Farmers in many countries can reduce fertilizer use without sacrificing food production.

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Weed Management: Practices For Integrated Solutions

Integrated Weed Management (IWM) is a comprehensive method to control and mitigate infestation in fields incorporating diverse techniques. The oldest way to tackle the problem is manual pulling. Yet, it is labor and time consuming due to vast areas and short staff.

Nowadays, most farmers rely on herbicides. However, sustainable agriculture and organic farming require a profound reconsideration of the approach as chemical residues harm both humans and nature, and many herbs develop resistance to chemical substances. In this regard, alternative and integral weed management plans are the most beneficial option with a thought of the future.

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Wheat farming: Costs and profits per acre in Kenya

Farmers in Kenya are very enterprising and hardworking people. This explains why there are numerous different projects that people are willing to try out.

Wheat farming in Kenya is one of the most lucrative farming ventures that any farmer can undertake especially if they have large tracks of land. The following is a guide on how you can engage in wheat farming and make profits out of it. After all, wheat is the second cereal crop that is most consumed in Kenya after maize. Its economic significance can therefore not be ignored. With proper management, it is possible to reap great benefits from the wheat farming business in Kenya.

Understanding wheat production in Kenya per acre
For optimal production, you need to understand the conditions that promote growth. Those doing large scale wheat farming in Kenya have understood what it takes to be a success.

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Farmer To Farmer Knowledge Exchange:

Relevance And Challenges During Change

Change is constant, but at this moment the pace and breadth in agriculture is unprecedented. With the biggest change in domestic policy in the UK since the Second World War combined with extreme weather events, trade agreements and global pandemics farming can seem very daunting. As individuals we have to take control and drive our own destiny without waiting to be told.

Encouraging curiosity to seek knowledge is vital whilst being open minded and aware of one’s own biases and filters.

Having the confidence to identify strengths and weaknesses under pressure is not easy. Building capacity, capability and social capital to enable resilience needs to happen; farmer to farmer knowledge exchange plays an important part in this.

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