Cotton farmers to reap from value addition as university provides portable ginning machines

Cotton farmers in Kirinyaga and Embu counties are set to make huge profits after acquiring ginning machines from Kirinyaga University.

The university has distributed four portable ginning machines among the BT cotton farmers. 

Bt cotton is a genetically modified pest resistant plant that produces an insecticide.

Joseph Nyaga, a cotton farmer from Embu, is planning to use the machines to produce lint in small scale.

He is one of the farmers who started growing Bt cotton when it was commercialised four years ago.

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation says Bt cotton has been improved genetically to resist the African bollworm, which is the most destructive cotton pest.

Bt cotton became the first biotech crop to be grown in Kenya after the government approved its commercial cultivation in 2019.

Cabinet said the move was aimed at increasing textile and apparel manufacturing and eventually reviving the cotton industry.

In March 2020, the government provided free Bt cotton seeds to farmers.

Some farmers, however, held back from planting the crop due to low yields and poor prices.

Nyaga said Bt cotton has given him almost four times the yields he harvested from the conventional cotton varieties.  

“I get between 800 to 1,000 kg of Bt cotton from one acre. Previously, I would harvest between 200-300 kg from the same acre,” he said.

He said the crop has helped him reduce the number of times he sprays the farm.

“This has saved me money because before, I used to spray eight to ten times and pesticides are expensive. Despite the many sprays, the yields remained low. With Bt cotton, I only do about four sprays and I am assured of a good harvest,” Nyaga said.

“I also plant few seeds because the germination rate for Bt cotton is higher and the maturity period is shorter,” he said.

The crop only take three months to mature.

Bt cotton seeds are however still expensive and many farmers cannot afford, hence the reliance on the government.

One requires one and a half kilos of BT cotton seeds to plant on a one acre farm and one kilo of the seeds costs Sh4,000.

Nyaga said from a good harvest, a farmer can make about Sh50,000.

He said despite the high yields, market is a challenge due to the few ginneries.

Out of the 24 ginneries registered by the Cotton Board of Kenya, only four are operational. They include Makueni, Kitui, Meru and Salawa ginneries.

But all is not lost as Kirinyaga University has stepped in to provide farmers with portable ginning machines.

With this intervention, the farmers will be able to sell lint at the price of Sh180 and Sh200 to textile factories. This means a 400 per cent increase in price.

Previously, unprocessed cotton cost Sh50 for grade A and Sh25 for grade B.

During a stakeholders’ meeting on agricultural biotechnology organised by ISAAA AfriCenter in Embu, researchers and farmers discussed the efficacy of and improvement on the new technology.

Dr Denis Muchangi, a lecturer at Kirinyaga University said the once robust textile industry started going down in the 90s.

“Since the commercialisation of Bt Cotton, thousands of farmers in different regions have taken up the initiative to supply ginneries but the product is still not sufficient," he said.

"Collaboration between researchers, academia, government and the farmers has however improved uptake and made biotechnology more seamless."

National Biosafety Authority CEO Roy Mugiira said the organisation will ensure biosafety regulations are strictly upheld and the best and safest products are delivered to farmers and consumers.

The regulator is also in the process of bringing in a labelling law.

“One of the regulations published in 2011/2012 is the labelling regulation. Essentially the regulation is a method to identify a product of GMO and facilitate consumer choice. The labelling regulation has nothing to do with safety since at the point of being placed in the market, the checks and assessment of safety has been concluded,” he said.

Paul Chege from ISAAA said that research organisations remain committed to supporting farmers to not only ensure resilient, high yielding crops but to also maximise their earnings.

“The collaboration between the researchers, the private sector and government remains crucial in the progress of agricultural biotechnology,” he said.

“Africa needs to be a leader, not a follower and this technology sharing is very important. We will endeavor to embrace regional collaboration of the willing for data sharing and synergies to ensure greater success of biotechnology.”