- The Coast region is known for growing industrial crops such as cashew nuts, coconuts, bixa, sisal, cotton, among others.
- Farmers encouraged to grow pulses between now and September before the El Nino rains that have been predicted by the weatherman in late October.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
Farmers at the Coast should adopt climate-smart technologies in cultivating their industrial crops, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation has said.
The Coast region is known for growing industrial crops such as cashew nuts, coconuts, bixa, sisal, cotton, among others.
“We want our farmers, especially in this era of climate change, to adopt these technologies that are meant to make the crops mature early, produce better yields and are drought-tolerant,” Phinyage Pole, a director at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, said.
He spoke on Thursday at Kalro premises in Mtwapa during the second edition of the East African Grain Council agribusiness expo where farmers from all six Coastal counties and exhibitors from across the country showcased their technologies and yields.
Most farmers in the region have just harvested maize from their farms and Pole said there are some post-harvest handling technologies that they can use to keep the yield secure and free from weevils and other pests.
Pole encouraged the Coast farmers to grow pulses between now and September before the El Nino rains that have been predicted by the weatherman in late October.
Pulses are edible seeds from legumes and include beans, cowpeas, green grams, and lentils, among others. These mature fast, within 45 days, Pole said.
“We also want our farmers to plant a lot of these tree crops. Our coconuts are drying but now because we have the rains in October we want to encourage them to plant a lot of coconuts, cashew nuts, bixa and all these others,” Pole said.
The drought that had been persistent for the last three years has affected a lot of the tree crops including coconuts, most of which were drying up.
Pole warned the Coast farmers that if they don’t plant a lot of the tree crops like coconuts, they shall be overtaken by Tharaka Nithi county whose farmers are now using technology to grow coconuts.
“If not careful, coconuts will be sold to us the way muguka is sold and it will be expensive,” Pole said.
Gerald Masila, the EAGC executive director and CEO, said the agribusiness expo brings together farmers from different parts of the Coast so as to learn new methods of farming that are best suited to the different climatic and soil conditions of their areas.
“Such an expo gives the farmers knowledge on what crops to plant, how to plant them and where to market them. We have also brought potential buyers and connected them with the farmers,” Masila said.
Kilifi deputy governor Mbetsa Chibule said farming is a business and Coast farmers should at this moment plant more grains that mature faster and therefore earn the farmers money faster.
“We as the Kilifi county government have deliberately given our farmers priority because we want to instil the business minds in farming,” she said.
She said such expos give knowledge to farmers who then get to know what crops to plant when and how.
Chibule said knowledge is power and with knowledge, even to learners in school about agriculture, incidences like the Bamba one where children ate poisonous mushrooms and five died, would have been avoided.
“When there is rain, the mushrooms pop up. It is just that people do not know the difference between the edible and the poisonous ones,” she noted.
Bamba is green now because of the rains.
“We have put water harvesting programs in place to help the Bamba people be able to take advantage of the rains now and in future,” said the deputy governor.
Bamba and Ganze constituency in Kilifi count as a whole has been a drought-stricken area traditionally.
The county has introduced garden farming to the Bamba residents and encouraged them to plant cassavas and sorghum, which do well even with little rain unlike maize, which requires a lot of rain.