Farmers urged to embrace clean energy to cut production costs

Farmers in the country have been urged to embrace clean energy to cut production costs and mitigate the effects of climate change as well.

Speakers at a stakeholder consultative forum on scaling the Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) in the agriculture sector said clean energy has enormous potential to make farming more sustainable.

The meeting co-hosted by Word Resources Institute Africa, Strathmore University, CS Mott Foundation, and Good Energies Foundation also called for increased investments in renewable energy.

Speakers noted that farmers around the world are increasingly using renewable energy in innovative ways to cut costs and reduce their carbon footprint.

They named sources of renewable energy in the farms as solar panels, geothermal and biogas while noting that global food production produces a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Wanjira Mathai, the Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at WRI, emphasised that farmers should adopt productive use of energy.

“It is about how we leverage energy. How we use energy, no country in the world developed without energy,” Mathai said.

Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo said farmers should be able to increase their earnings with the use of renewable energy.

“Farmers should make money out of it. It is something that I see happening. That is how we will move away from poverty,” he stated.

Izael Da Silva, deputy vice chancellor at Strathmore University said there should be less use of coal and fossil fuel in the farms.

“Today in Kenya, you can produce your kilowatt-hour cheaper than what the utility charges you; and it is in your compound,” he said.

Biogas was named as a key source of renewable energy in the farms.

Biogas is derived from organic matter such as food and animal waste. It can be used for cooking and heating as a more sustainable and often cheaper alternative to natural gas.