Murang'a first county to enact law promoting organic farming

Murang’a has become the first county to enact a law to promote organic farming for food security and to alleviate illnesses.

The Murang’a Agro-ecology Development Act and policy were launched on Friday after being passed by the county assembly.

The law provides for the establishment of an agroecology development and marketing board that will regulate the practice while promoting trade in agroecology in partnership with the relevant government agencies.

The will coordinate and mobilise resources for investments and promotion of agroecology products, and conduct research aimed at promoting value addition and marketing of produce in partnership with local institutions of higher learning.

It will facilitate the adoption of appropriate value addition technologies and best practices in the production and processing of products.

On the other hand, the policy will encourage adoption of holistic, complementary, and sustainable soil and farm production.

It will support increased awareness on health benefits to life and environment, prioritise marketing strategies and promote consumption of agro ecology products in the county and implement standards of production in the sub sector in line with both national and internationally set market standards.

Stakeholders hailed organic agriculture as a practice that shuns poisonous chemicals, resulting in healthy food that contains more nutrients and enhances both animals and human beings’ health while conserving the environment.

Other than organic farming, the county will propagate for regenerative agriculture that includes no or minimum tillage, permaculture, composting, ecological aquaculture and crop rotation among others.

Majority of the locals practice conventional farming that has been attributed to low creation of awareness with most extension packages disseminated being on conventional practices.

Over 80 per cent of local households depend on agriculture and face the challenge of limited agricultural land and irregular supply of farm inputs especially for non-cash crop growers who are not members of cooperative societies.

Deputy Governor Stephen Munania said the County government has committed to allocate resources in its annual development plan and budget for the programme, and will work with stakeholders and partners for additional support.

Through the programme, the county government will seek to make agro-ecology farm inputs affordable for increased productivity and commercialise the agro-ecology sub sector through support by the County Special Program Funds.

Farmers, he said, will be educated on the benefits of organic farming which will make them eligible for the export market.

“We have signed this law to ensure residents benefit from the 10-year framework and make Murang’a an organic farming county that produces foods that are healthy and can be marketed internationally”.

Martin Muriuki, the executive director of Institute for Culture and Ecology, an NGO that partnered with the county to draft the two laws, said the law will promote sustainable farming and enhance food security.

“We are celebrating the first agroecology act and policy in Kenya that will support organic farming activities and the environment. It will boost food security and soil health,” he said.

The laws, he said, will ensure farmers are educated and consolidated into co-operatives, and that similar laws are being lobbied for in several other counties.

He however said the push for agro-ecology across the country will not conflict will the government’s decision to allow Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

“We are saying there are other farming practices that can support farmers more than others that have some negative effects on the environment. We urge the government to invest more in agro-ecology to eradicate food insecurity and alleviate illnesses instead of GMOs”.

Dr. Ralph Roothaert, the Country director for World Vegetables Centre, another organization that helped draft the laws, said agriculture world-wide has been a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

This, he said, coupled with other polluting and natural resource depleting factors have led to a broken food system that needs to be repaired by growing food in ways that don’t destroy the planet.

“Among all agricultural crops, vegetables stand out because of their profitability even from a small piece of land as opposed to maize. Our research shows that gross margins of vegetables in small holder systems are more than nine times higher that of maize”.

He outlined the Veggies 4 Planet programme that is implemented in Kenya and Ethiopia, and is jointly implemented with SNV Netherlands Development Organization and county governments, and focuses on traditional vegetables due to their high nutrition.

The indigenous vegetables can be grown in agro-ecological ways with statistics indicating that only 6.1 percent of Kenyans consume enough vegetables that entail a minimum of 400g per day, he added.

He however underscored the need to improve the efficiency of the agro-ecological vegetable value chain by reducing costs that contribute to high retail prices.

“The agro-ecology policy and act is timely as it promotes the production levels of organic produce through better training of farmers. It also intends to establish organic markets and stimulates the civil society to build the capacity of farmers’ associations and networks to create economies of scale”.