Kenya presses on with Galana as hunger bites

KILIFI-GALANA KALALU FARM;maizecrops under irrigation at the Galana kalalu farm in Kilifi County.PHOTO BY PHILIP MWAKIO/STANDARD

Hopes of a food-secure country may be in sight, but not soon enough to help about 1.3 million starving Kenyans.

The Galana-Kulalu food security project is currently 70 per cent complete. The pilot phase has a target to put 10,000 acres of land under maize by the end of March next year, according to Site Chief Engineer Henry Ochiere.

“We are doing construction, while at the same time preparing land and harvesting maize,” he said, adding that the team will be planting another 600 acres of maize in the next seven days.

The pilot phase, Mr Ochiere said, has narrowed down to four varieties of maize from an initial 13. The ultimate plan is to settle on best three varieties even as plans to try other plants on the irrigation-supported farm continue.

Poor performing varieties have already been dropped.

The farm, which depends on both drip and centre pivot irrigation systems, has seen 19 centre pivots installed, with one currently under installation. This, according to Ochiere, leaves just four more to go to have enough pivots to support the pilot phase.

MODEL FARM

“The plan is to grow crops in steps so that the machinery we have on the ground can be used throughout the year without being overwhelmed at any given point,” he said.

With the project showing a glimpse of hope, the intake point where water is obstructed to be used for irrigation is getting a facelift to secure more of the resource.

The model farm started out with 500 acres, which has since increased to 3,000 acres. With the entire project targeting about 400,000 acres, it is estimated that just half of the total planned acreage will be enough to make the country food secure.

However, this will require construction of one mega dam with a capacity of two billion cubic metres to support the full capacity of the project, which sits in dry Tana River and Kilifi counties.

Today, officials from the National Irrigation Board and State Department of Irrigation are expected on site to assess progress.

The project’s delivery is part of the current regime’s pledge to put one million acres of land under irrigation within five years.

Tana River, Mandera, Marsabit, Samburu, Garissa, Wajir, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Isiolo and Kitui counties have been badly hit by drought, with the Government hoping the Galana project will be the silver bullet that ends the cycle of food insecurity in the country.