As you step into Wilda Farm on the outskirts of Njoro, Nakuru county, one thing is absolutely clear: cleanliness is the epitome.
Tucked some kilometres away from Njoro town in Gichobi, Njoro sub-county, Nakuru county, the farm is a model of choice and a beacon of hope for many farmers.
Wilda Farm co-owner Harun Warui says the seven-acre farm is a model for farmers to come and learn what is known as regenerative farming.
On the farm, the use of water, as well as other inputs, is reduced.
Land degradation and deforestation are also prevented.
“We have branded ourselves as a circular regenerative farm, whereby we are promoting the element of circularity in compost, energy and biogas production that is used to take care of our energy demand,” Warui says as he ushers us into the farm.
Warui says all the waste on his farm is collected and used to make manure.
On this farm, which started seven years ago, nothing goes to waste. Waste from zero grazing is used to generate biogas.
Warui says the composting helps the farm enhance its sanitary conditions.
“It also enhances sanitary conditions on the farm as it reduces poor disposal of livestock manure. It becomes a resource more than a waste,” he says.
“We are using this (compost) for growing our fodder as it enhances the nutrient level and improves soil health through microbial growth.”
The compost on the farm is ready for use after three months.
We are promoting the element of circularity in compost, energy and biogas production that is used to take care of our energy demand
FOOD SAFETY
Warui said the farm takes great measures to prevent contamination.
“On this farm, we are very concerned with food safety,” he says.
“From production to the mini-processing that is done up to the shelves. At the production level, we are very careful with aflatoxin.”
Warui says the aflatoxins come from the feeds they give their livestock, and when they are doing the silage.
“The other element is the concentrate we provide. We are very careful about the sourcing of our concentrates, and we look at the quality, mainly of the maize germs that come from outside. Some of them have mould,” Warui says.
They store them in aerobic conditions to avoid the development of mould.
The farm has a pasteurisation machine thanks to the partnership with Micro Enterprise Support Trust (MESPT).
The machine now helps the farm add value by producing yoghurt and sour milk, thereby reducing losses.
The milk from the farm is sold at ATM machines in Njoro and Egerton.
One litre of milk goes for Sh70. Initially, a lot of milk could go to waste as the farm did not have machines to do value addition.
The demand for milk is, however, growing as people have discovered that the milk from the farm is of high quality.
MESPT is a development organisation established in 2002 by the government, the European Union and later the Danish Embassy in Kenya.
It is mandated to support sustainable economic growth and the development of smallholder farmers.
It also supports agri-MSMEs to increase productivity and income and enhance competitiveness for job creation, especially for youth and women, through capacity building, skills development, technical support, business advisories and financial and market linkages.
BENEFITS ARISING
MESPT chief executive Rebecca Amukhoye says the support accorded to the agricultural and financial services sectors in the last 10 years has yielded fruits.
“The trust has developed key competencies that have contributed to enterprising solutions that have impacted Kenya’s rural poor to increase their competitiveness in various agricultural value chains, leading to job creation,” Amukhoye says.
She says the services they provide include access to markets, promotion of sustainable agricultural production and natural resource management, as well as the provision of sustainable credits to financial institutions and SMEs.
They also help with value chain development, business development and capacity building for farmer organisations.
Since 2014, MESPT has disbursed Sh6.6 billion to financial institutions and SMEs.
Some 350,000 end users access finance through 55 financial products developed with 30 financial institutions.
MESPT says 70,000 jobs have been created at various levels of market systems, while 150,000 farmers have been trained in various relevant agricultural training programmes.
It says 6,000 farmers have been certified in various food safety market standards and are accessing international markets, generating premium prices.
Some 600 youth-led enterprises have been supported under the MESPT programme.
MESPT says Sh7 billion has been realised by smallholder farmers as total sales turnover.
The Trust is also in partnership with 17 counties.
Warui says they are very careful about the conditions under which they milk their cows.
“We also ensure that the animals are healthy because of the zoonotic diseases,” he says.
To reduce the possibility of contamination of milk, the farm has acquired one milking machine and steel-based milking and transporting cans through a partnership with MESPT.
Warui says MESPT has helped the farm acquire a hybrid solar system to help cut the spiralling cost of power.
He says his farm, which acts as a model farm for other farmers to come and learn from, strives to take a trajectory of green growth, ensuring that the costs of operations are reduced.
Most of the efforts on the farm are geared towards making the business sustainable.
COSTLY AFFAIR
According to Warui, dairy farming is a very costly affair.
The challenges include the skyrocketing cost of feeds as well as the high cost of power.
Wilda Farm now has 15 solar panels.
Warui says the farm helps train farmers on how to cut costs.
“Farmers are learning about reducing the cost of feeds,” he says.
“We are encouraging farmers to adopt what we are carrying out on our farms: regenerative agriculture, whereby we compost. These help farmers reduce the cost of feed production.”
Warui says the farm is also using simple structures for the dairy farm, a move that farmers can relate to.
He says the farm is a model that is open for farmers to come and learn what they do.
Warui says the most important resource for a dairy farmer is feed, and his farm discourages farmers from spending a lot of money on expensive structures.
“We encourage farmers to start with the elements of feed and animal breed,” he says.
Warui says the farm also does not keep super-high producers but goes for animals based on adaptive productivity, which can produce at optimal levels without high feed and care-intensive demand.
Wilda Farm manager Kenneth Kaburu says the farm has invested in two varieties of Napier grass.
These are Juncao and Super Nappier from Thailand.
“Every time the farmers come to the farm, they are taught how to plant the two varieties on their farms for self-sustenance and high productivity,” Kaburu says.
Kaburu says the two varieties are not highly productive in terms of food proteins.
They are weather-resistant, though, as they grow in all ecological zones.
Kaburu says one acre of Juncao provides 18 tonnes of silage.
It can also sustain livestock during the dry season, preventing farmers from buying hay.
“During the dry season, the lower leaves provide dry matter, and the top provides green matter.”
Kaburu says the farm has already done some capacity building for quite a number of farmers.
The farmers also buy fodder seeds from the farm at subsidised rates.
Kaburu says there are plans to buy the milk from the farmers in the near future before selling it at their points to cut off brokers.
He says the farm has sustained the quality of its milk products, a move that has helped to sustain the market and meet demand.
Even though the farm majors in dairy farming, it also has doper sheep, poultry and an apiary with 80 beehives.
Kaburu says the farm has 52 dairy cows, producing between 200 and 250 liters of milk per day.
The farm manager says they initially bought a number of feeds but have since been reduced after the farm started silageing the fodder it is growing.
At the farm, the dairy cows are also sprayed every Saturday to kill ticks.
Kaburu says Napier grass should be given to livestock when it is one and a half metres high, as at that stage, they have the required nutrients.
He says food rationing must also be adhered to.
“One cow that is being milked must eat five kilos of hay, 10 kilos of Napier grass, three kilos of maize germ and five kilos of wheat brand per day,” he says.
“A calf is given two kilos of hay, four kilos of Napier grass, 0.5 kilos of wheat brand, and 0.5 kilos of maize gem.”
The production per animal per day is 25 to 30kg of milk.
“We have classified animals; we have those producing 25 to 30 in one section, 20 to 25 in another section, and 10 to 15,” Kaburu says.
The farm has a special professional who inseminates their livestock, as the farm only buys sperm.
He says a farmer has to be friendly to his or her animal so that you notice their behaviour when they are on heat.