Farmers are reaping the benefits of new soil-specific fertiliser from Yara East Africa Fertiliser.
The company's country manager William Ng’eno said on Tuesday the DAP and urea fertiliser is manufactured for soils in particular regions and crop types.
It has only two nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus.
“A bigger deficit in Kenyan soil is sulphur. An even bigger problem, however, is fertiliser competence. Use of fertiliser is a science that is yet to be understood by farmers and other stakeholders.
"Despite soil in most regions in Kenya being acidic, farmers have continually used acidic fertiliser which further limits the availability of nutrients in the soil,” Ng’eno said.
He was presenting a soil analysis report for various regions and recommended fertiliser to Agriculture Chief Administrative Secretary Andrew Tuimur.
Tuimur urged fertiliser companies to reach out to counties and come up with creative solutions to complement government extension efforts.
“The government is committed to increasing fertiliser use to 50 per cent per hectare as per the Abuja Declaration and we are happy companies such as Yara are working with us towards achieving this,” he said.
The Yara official said there were fertilisers specific for coffee, tea, potatoes, tomatoes and other crops.
“We have developed differentiated products that answer to the needs of soils in various regions. For maize, for instance, we have developed a fertiliser brand called YaraMira Power, which has multi-nutrients including zinc and potassium that can double maize production. In case of drought, potassium will regulate moisture loss while zinc enables roots to grow fast and tap more water,” Ngéno said.
He said applying crop-enhancing ingredients should no longer be a matter of trial and error but an exact science. "Extensive soil analysis research in various regions and tailor-making fertiliser for specific crops and soil typology is the assured way.”
Nge'no said Yara’s technical experts have visited farms in Chemelil sugar belt, maize and wheat farms in Kitale and Uasin Gishu as well as rice paddies in Mwea.
“Farmers in Kenya currently apply less than 50 kilos of fertiliser per hectare while in Latin America it is 200 kilos of nutrients per hectare. We have not managed to increase fertiliser usage partly because farmers don’t understand the importance of using fertiliser."
He attributed the agricultural revolution in Asia and Latin America to increased fertiliser uptake.
Edited by R.Wamochie
