Did you say arid? No, Mandera is fast turning into a food basket

Fresh from a career in the skies navigating aircraft, Mandera County Governor Captain Ali Roba landed determined to erase the tag “food deficient” from the arid County of slightly over a million people.

The strategy that has started bearing fruits involved chaperoning conservative pastoral folks into a life where livestock rearing and crop farming are complimentary activities where access to water allows. Mandera County Government today boasts a demonstration farm that is revamping agriculture.

Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries County executive committee member Mohamed Omar Absiye says: “The demonstration farm is 94 acres leased from a group of farmers along the River Dawa. Only a small portion has been put into use and the contribution it has made in the food sector is immense.

With pride on his face, Absiya says: “Two years since the advent of devolution and courtesy of the demonstration farm, Mandera County is about to hold its first ever agricultural show in November this year to display to the world, what our people can produce, given the right incentives and implements. It has sadly taken us 50 years to reach here.”

Absiye is not sure of the number that has taken up farming, but hints to a large group thus: “The river runs 150 kilometres within Kenyan territory and a majority of folks with riparian land are combining pastoralism with crop farming. Leasing farms for agriculture by people from other areas including non-locals is common.

Things will only be better when a proposed dam to regulate the river’s flow is built.”

Naturally fertile soils

Farmers troop to the demonstration farm to learn modern agricultural techniques. The county government identifies deserving ones who are supplied with free seeds, water pumps, diesel and other implements. The effort has paid dividends.

Mr Absiye says the county government is seeking markets for farmers so that their sweat does not go to waste. “We have done so by buying maize direct from them at attractive prices and keeping it in our stores for a rainy day.

We bought 800 90kg bags of maize from farmers last season out of which 400 bags have been distributed to internally displaced people. We bought 600 bags the previous year. We identify markets for perishables such as tomatoes, watermelons, and others.

Water melons and onions grown in Mandera are on high demand in Nairobi and other towns for their sheer size and quality. Notably, our crops better fit the health bill because they are grown without fertiliser. Soils here are naturally fertile. The two crops are becoming a gold mine of sorts.

Three of our farmers jointly put 13 acres under the crops and made Sh3.5 million last season alone,” says Mr Absiye.

He says produce from the demonstration farm is sold to consumers at the local market at no profit. “We harvested 150 bags of maize, 10 bags of sesame, five bags of sunflower seeds and three bags of groundnuts last season. We are yet to harvest bananas,” he adds.

Mr Absiye says money earned by selling produce from the demonstration farm goes into the county’s coffers and much is pumped back into the farm.

Walking through the farm located about a kilometre away from town on a dusty access road, invokes marvel at what a sun bathed soil can produce if water is available. I counted over 100 pawpaw fruits on a single pawpaw plant and wondered aloud if I was indeed in Mandera. Equally fascinating are the banana crops, squat but heavy with green fruits.

Also doing well under the smoldering heat are tomatoes. Sesame, a source of oil is doing well on experiment. The maize crop is green and fecund with everything pointing to a bumper. As for the watermelons, their sizes are simply amazing.

Proof that Mandera melons are like no other is obvious at the airstrip and the bus terminus. Flights and public service vehicles destined for Nairobi and other places cannot cope with the inflow. Mr Absiye says a bigger airstrip detached from the military is necessary to carry melons and other produce to markets abroad. Mandera airstrip is a military facility.