Why Nyalani is Kwale's new breadbasket

A farm under irrigation in Nyalani. PHOTO: JECKONIA OTIENO

KENYA: Nyalani lies somewhere, lost in the vast Kwale County and its name may not elicit any interest at face value.

However, Nyalani has become one of Kwale's breadbaskets thanks to an old water catchment that does not dry up and that has been transformed, thanks to the devolved system of government. Today, a visitor to the region is met by heaps of onions, water melons and butternut all harvested from the previously unused patch of land.

There are 417 farmers in the area, each farming on a quarter acre of land. This is the first time they have such a bumper harvest after a dam was built to help trap the water and pipes laid. This has made it possible for them to irrigate their land.

"Before these works were done, we would depend on rain for our crops, which were adversely affected during the dry season. This is, however, now a thing of the past. We now have water to irrigate," Bati Mwatela, one of the farmers, says.

Now assured of a bountiful harvest, the farmers' new challenge is finding ready market for their produce.

Harrison Mwadingo, another farmer, says in order to solve this marketing problem they have formed cooperatives.

"We pay Sh1,500 to become registered members of the cooperative society," he says.

Each farmer has eight rows in their quarter acre piece of land. Produce from six rows are sold through the cooperative while two rows are reserved for the farmer's personal use. The cooperative retains 20 per cent of what it sells and gives the farmer the rest.

Work on the catchment area begun after the county government purchased equipment and got into a partnership with the Kenya Red Cross and Safaricom Foundation. According to Agriculture Chief Officer, Dr Hamisi Dzila, these efforts are intended to boost the region's food security.

He says creation of the cooperatives is intended to improve the farmer's earnings by eliminating middlemen.

"We want to go beyond subsistence farming and increase farmers' income from what they produce. Last year there was a lot of wastage due to lack of markets," he says.

In the new arrangement, the county government provides seeds and fertilizer to improve crop yield and the farmer uses drip irrigation. Water from the dam is pumped from the dam to the farms where farmers have valve controlled pipes at the entrance of each farm.

The produce is sold in Kwale, Kinango, Samburu and Mombasa and the county government has opened up previously impassable feeder roads to connect Nyalani and other parts of the county.

The county is also embarking on reviving farming in crops like cashew nuts, coconuts and sugarcane which were previously lucrative ventures for residents of Kwale.

According to Dr Dzila, Nyalani is now an example of how investment in agriculture can change the lives of locals. The dam at Nyalani does offer more than just water for agriculture since locals also fetch water for domestic use. Some also fish in the water while others use it for livestock.

What was initially just a normal seasonal routine has now been turned around to become a productive zone for residents and increase food security in a county associated with poverty.