Kitui legume farmers reap from drought tolerant crops

Ruth Mbuthye Kimanzi of Malili village in Mwingi North, Kitui is a happy farmer and is staring at the prospect of a bumper harvest.

This is despite the short-lived but intense October-December rainfall.

Kimanzi planted drought resilient cowpeas, mung beans as well as maize, all of which were blossoming when we visited her shamba over a week ago.

She is no doubt assured of a good harvest because all her crops have reached maturity.

Farmer Johua Munyoki Mwinzi in the neighbouring Kiemani village is also in a celebratory mood.

His cowpeas and green gram crops have successfully matured and he looks forward to a good yield.

However, the maize he intercropped with the legumes is not doing as well.

About eight kilometers from Kimanzi’s farm, Christina Mawia ,58, is pre-occupied with the daily work of shooing birds from her ripening pearl millet crop.

In a week’s time the crop will be ready for harvesting.

Mawia had besides the millet, planted maize and beans but they have all failed. She clings to the millet crop as the only means of assuring her family of food for at least a month or two.

However, Ngina Munyoki of Ndoo village in Kitui East is a troubled soul. Her beans and maize crops have withered.

Munyoki will not harvest a single grain from her shamba despite her immense efforts.

The heavy October-December rains subsided pre-maturely living her crop to suffer the vagaries of the sweltering sun.

For Kitheka Mukuni, a farmer from Tulanduli village in Mwingi North the October-Decembers rains were not helpful to the residents in terms of warding-off hunger.

He says they came late and were unnecessarily intense but too short.

When the rains delayed to start in the month of October as is normally the case, Mary Kamam of Kyuso saw no need to plant any crop.

She is thus not looking forward to any yield from her shamba.

She said majority of residents stare at hunger as bean and maize crops that make the staple and popular githeri meal have failed.

The farmer wishes that the rains could have come early and lasted a little longer to guarantee considerable yields from bean and maize crops.

Only a small percentage of the county's population gained from the October-December rains while a bigger chunk is facing serious food insecurity.

The Kitui National Drought Management Authority office has already disclosed that local farmers will only get a quarter of their normal yield.

This, they attributed to poor timing of the October-December short rains.

NDMA Kitui coordinator Francis Koma said only half of Kitui farmers planted during the October-December heavy rains.

He added that half of the residents who planted crops did so too late and lost the crop after the rains subsided before the crops matured.

Koma said the difference between the farmers who are guaranteed of good yield and those who will get little or no yield lies on how the individual farmers handled the advisory by the weatherman and agricultural experts.

“In its forecast ahead of the October-December rains, the county meteorological office was overt that the rainfall would come late and would be short-lived. 

"In collaboration with other agricultural stakeholders, farmers were advised to plant early maturing crops like millet, cowpeas, sorghum and green grams,” Koma said. 

He said those who heeded the weatherman’s advice, albeit being a very small percentage, have no cause to worry.

"Their granaries will soon be bulging with substantial harvest. Woe unto those who ignored the advisory," he added.

Koma said farmers who ignored the important advisory from the met department, aggravated the famine and drought situation.

In September last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared drought a national disaster. Drought had ravaged Kitui since the beginning of 2021. 

Mwingi Central Agricultural officer Pauline Kyavoa told the Star that her department had advised the farmers not only to plant early but to plant drought tolerant crops.

She said the then expected rainy season was forecast to be short and unreliable.

Kyavoa said even when it came in high intensity, the rain was not sufficient for crops like beans and maize which require a lot of moisture to grow to maturity.

She said those who heeded the expert advisory, used the right seeds and proper farm management practice are assured of good yield even as the maize and bean crops fail.

Early last October, Kitui meteorology director Daniel Mbithi announced that the county will only receive rain for about a month.

He was quick to point out then that it had been forecast that the delayed rains would come in mid-November and halt sometime in mid-December.

Mbithi spoke at the end of a two-day workshop at the Kitui Agricultural Training Centre.

The workshop had brought together farmers’ representatives from across Kitui. It was funded by FAO and was meant to equip farmers with the right information on how best to prepare for the rains.

“Unless residents are proactive enough to conserve water and pasture during the inadequate October-December rains, they are likely to get into a serious crisis,” Mbithi said.

He also said then that unless farmers heed his advisory, drought and food insecurity would exacerbate.

Speaking after  Mbithi’s disclosure, Kitui Agriculture executive, Emmanuel Kisangau, said for farmers to mitigate against the adverse effects of the inadequate rains, they should plant early maturing and drought tolerant crops beside doing terracing.

Four months down the line, Mbithi’s predictions appear to have come to pass.

The food insecurity has worsened as the number of people in Kitui in dire need of relief food support has leaped two-fold.

NDMA data shows the numbers increased from 113,600 before the rains to 226,200 currently.

A recent spot check by the Star collaborated the assertion by the experts.

Kimanzi whom we met at her Itivanzou farm has become the envy of her neighbours.

She not only planted way ahead of the rains but applied adequate farm yard manure which ensured that her crops had enough nutrients.

“I am happy that my efforts paid off. Besides the cowpeas and green grams crop, I also planted early maturing maize and beans.

"You can see for yourself that none of my crops have failed. This time round I managed to kick out hunger from my home,” she told us with a tinge of pride.

Kimanzi said despite practicing dry planting ahead of the rains, the use of manure performed the miracle of the good yield.

“Mine was simply a case of making hay when the sun shines,” she said.

At Munyoki’s Kiemani farm, the farmer said he was proud of how his cowpeas and mung bean crops had performed.

He too said he had been following weather forecast reports on his small transistor radio and adhered to advice from local agricultural extension officers.

“I did terracing in my farm and planted before the rains. When the rains came, the seeds germinated and started to grow.

"Even after the heavy rain that turned out to be too short, the crops, being drought resilient, continued to grow up to maturity,” Munyoki said as he showed us his drying cowpeas crop.

Another farmer, Pastor Samuel Kimwele, of Kaunguni village in Mwingi Central said he was certain he would harvest enough food to last his family to the next rain season.

“I have been in constant touch with the experts. When they asked farmers not only to plant way ahead of the rains but to plant drought tolerant crops, I listened and took heed. I planted largely green grams and cowpeas and they have done very well,” he added.

Kimwele, however, lamented that although he had put a small portion of his farm on maize, the crop did not do very well. 

He said he expects a negligible harvest from the crop as opposed to mung beans and cowpeas.

A review of the last October- December rains in Kitui shows that the county received extremely high rainfall in November and December.

This was attributed to a sudden shift of intertropical convergence zone meridional winds.

“The lowest rainfall recorded in our stations was 236mm while the highest was over 400 mm.

"This was good for all crops including short-season varieties of maize,” Mbithi said when he released the report on the performance of the short rains.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)