- The improved combine harvester owned by Agrized company harvests the rice and collects it in one place.
- The combine harvester carries an average of 10 sacks of 50kg each.
Image: KNA
Rice farmers in Kisumu county have recorded higher returns following the introduction of better farming practices.
Farmers from the Kopondo B rice irrigation scheme in the Kibos area have hailed their leaders for introducing the upgraded combine harvester, which hastens harvesting.
Vincent Owuor, a rice grower said, “We used to cut rice with knives and this would bring so much wastage especially if the rice was dry. The manual hand beating rice against an object made rice scatter causing wastage.”
Instead of five sacks they used to get through manual harvesting, now they get at least eight because there is no wastage.
The improved combine harvester owned by Agrized company harvests the rice and collects it in one place where it is packed in sacks by loaders and taken to the destination.
“We rejected the combine harvester at first because women and the youth complained it would bring unemployment, but when we discovered it came with many advantages to farmers we embraced the idea,” Owuor said.
Eliud Otieno, chairperson of the irrigation scheme, said the upgraded combine harvester has saved farmers labour costs. The first time they used the harvester they were charged Sh6,000 per acre but due to fuel cost increment, they are being charged Sh7,000 per acre.
“We saw the harvester working in other schemes and approached them to also come harvest for us and now we are working with two combine harvesters in our scheme,” Otieno said.
Lincoln Onono, field manager at Agrized company, said the combine harvester works best in flooded places. The farm should not be deep or muddy. “In case it gets stuck, it's dragged by another harvester since the machines are heavy,” Onono said.
The combine harvester carries an average of 10 sacks of 50kg each.
Paul Waondo, a loader, said carrying rice out of the farm has been made easier since the harvester collects the rice in one place. They used to carry the sacks from different places, which was time consuming. However, the price of loading has reduced since there is less work.
Earlier this year, the government started a 10-year programme to promote rice consumption and reduce reliance on maize.
Kenya’s domestic rice sector is yet to meet the increasing demand for the commodity, Mary Mutembei of the Agriculture ministry said early in the year. She is head of the rice promotion programme at the State Department of Crops.
Mutembei said demand has increased due to population growth of the middle class and urbanisation.
She said the country has a youthful population that does not want to eat the staple food, maize, all the time.
The programme is aimed at reducing reliance on maize as a staple as the weather is uncertain and prices fluctuate.
“We wanted to supplement maize, which is the main staple food. So when we looked around we realised rice is a promising crop because of the increasing consumption," she said.