Sustainability key to future of farming

As we celebrated the World Environment Day on Sunday, we were reminded that the most obvious source of challenges for the local agricultural sector has been the diminishing production of staples like maize, millet, sorghum and other cereals in the face of increasing population.

This has been made worse by unpredictable weather patterns precipitated by climate change. In Kenya, the phenomenon has been manifested in unexpected variations and extreme weather conditions that seriously affect our farming cycles.

Kenyan farmers have over the years had mixed fortunes thrown their way by turbulent issues beyond their control.

Some of these include changes in international commodity prices, international trade agreements, volatile exchange rates, changes in input prices and land availability.

Weighing heavily on these is the effect of climate change on the availability of essential resources and the consistency of yields. It is this that taxes policy makers as they seek for ways of making food production sustainable.

The day affords us an opportunity to reflect on our environment. The good news is that the challenges can be fixed by farmers. Most of these “controllable” components of modern-day farming can be summarised in one word - sustainability.

Sustainability in farming is about the adoption of a more holistic philosophy and effective approach to the way you farm. It is really also the only way that any farmer can secure the future of his farm. The obvious question then is: if sustainability in agriculture is not just about being “green”, what is it about?

A key, and often overlooked, component of sustainable farming is the adoption of technology and innovative dynamic capabilities that can enable farmers to reconfigure themselves to adapt to new climatic conditions, seize the opportunities that the new climatic conditions may betide and prevent environmental degradation.

Progressively, more scientists, policy panels and experts are suggesting that sustainable agricultural practices can feed more poor people sooner as well as begin to repair the damage caused by industrial production and in the long term become the norm.

This is why a corporate like East African Breweries Ltd (EABL), which works with local farmers, is environmentally conscious.

The beverage company not only uses agricultural products like barley and sorghum as its main raw material in the alcoholic beverages production process, but has been working to address the water challenge amongst communities where it operates and promoting the cultivation of gadam sorghum in arid and semi-arid areas. The crop is hardy and needs little water to survive.

For most farmers in Kenya as in other parts of Africa, building sustainability into their farming practices goes beyond just addressing environmental risks and challenges, or maximising yields - it is a vital component in their ability to access the finance they need to keep on farming.

By practising sustainable agriculture, small-scale farmers are enabled to farm in ways that are less costly and more productive. It also benefits all of us, because it slows global warming and ecological destruction.

While the initial investment in sustainable farming techniques may seem steep, the savings particularly in production costs mean that farmers are likely to recover that financial layout quicker, and then convert those savings into profits that are less dependent on ideal farming conditions in the mid-long term.

As a corporate leader, EABL is committed to addressing these challenges. In 2015 jointly with Frigoken Ltd, Nairobi City Water Company, Pentair Ltd and the Nature Conservancy, they launched the Upper Tana- Nairobi Water Fund, Africa’s first water fund that brings together public and private sector to support 50,000 farmers in Upper Tana conserve the environment while improving their farming practices.

The Water Fund’s progress is tracked by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Kenya government.

The programme benefits will even be more after integrating other investment being made by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and climate adaptation support from Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (TARDA).

EABL has successfully incorporated ways of addressing the global water challenge by ensuring efficient usage in its raw materials, within the production processes and in the communities it operates and through advocacy.

Whether a farmer, researcher, financier, aggregator, buyer, or consumer, it is critical that we all start to act sustainably. The future of farming in Kenya depends on it. Food is a basic right and honest sustainability an urgency.