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Joel Tanui, the Nyanza Regional Coordinator and Western Kenya Irrigation Schemes of Ahero and West Kano [Robert Kiplagat, Standard]
Women and children can be heard shouting, waving, and clapping in one of the rice farms in the 7,868-acre Ahero Irrigation Scheme in Kisumu County.
Every time one of them shouts, a chorus of wing-flapping birds is aroused. A flock of birds takes off only to perch at a safe distance from the children scaring them away. These are the bad birds of Ahero.
They will have another bite or two of the white grain before they are shooed away again by a woman who throws her hands in the air as if in desperation.
If a farmer is not careful, these quelea birds will eat up all their rice. And because the farmer has put in a lot of money, they have to protect their investments.
The bird scarers—and there are many of them today—have been playing this game with the birds since 6am. It is now around 3pm, and they already look tired and dejected.
It will not be until the sun sets that the two parties will retire to their different homes- the birds in the nests on trees along River Nyando and the scarers in their homes around the scheme.
Tomorrow, the game will start all over again for the two parties.
Thankless job
It is a thankless job, but at least it pays off. After about three weeks, each of these individuals will receive between Sh4,500 and Sh6,000.
But it is an unnecessary expense for the rice owner, who also has to provide breakfast and lunch to these individuals.
“I used to scare birds on five acres. And we were doing it for free,” says Stephen Athembo, a farmer and also the chair of Ahero Multipurpose Co-operative Society.
But now, rice farmers here have invested heavily in bird scaring. Farmers say they need at least three people in one acre.
The alternative is losses. Huge losses, like when 10 acres of rice in the scheme were lost to the birds, says Athembo.
Scaring is getting more expensive because even the birds are getting smarter. So much so that erecting scarecrows or clanging metals do not rattle them anymore.
Story at Hola irrigation scheme
It is a different story at David Kimemia’s new rice farm in Hola irrigation scheme in Tana River County.
Across his rice farm he has strung together empty beer cans on a string which an individual, who also carries a vuvuzela as a back-up tool, occasionally pulls from one end whenever birds land on the farm.
Some of the scarecrows put by wheat farmers in Ololung'a area in Narok South to scare away the invasive quelea birds. The birds have invaded wheat fields leaving a trail of destruction as they feast on the wheat grain. [Robert Kiplagat, Standard]
A loud jangle of the cans scares the birds away. Kimemia, 32, used to grow rice at Mwea Irrigation scheme before he moved here.
He is happy with this new place due to the availability of water, which is provided by the National Irrigation Authority. He says he came up with the idea of cans because the soil here is not like that of Mwea.
“In Mwea, we throw the soil at birds. Here I tried, and the birds didn’t move,” says Kimemia.
But this idea of cans, Ahero farmers say, is not effective. Earlier, the farmers in Ahero would put telephone wires across the farm. And when the birds came close they were cut to death. But soon, the birds learnt to fly over the wires. Other scare tactics for the qualea birds, including having a scarecrow also no longer work.
The birds in Ahero, it appears, besides being arrogant and being unmoved by most of the conventional scare tactics, are on a breeding frenzy.
They have never been this many, the farmers in Ahero tell The Smart Harvest.
“I don’t know what happened, but suddenly there is an increase in the number of birds,” says Athembo.
In Ahero alone, the bird population is estimated at slightly over five million, says Joel Tanui, the Nyanza Regional Coordinator and Western Kenya Irrigation Schemes (Ahero and West Kano), owned by the National Irrigation Authority. Tanui says when a single bird lands on a farm, it can consume amount of rice its own weight.
“So, if one bird weighs 80 grams when it lands on your farm it will feed on rice worth 80 grams,” says Tanui, adding that the damage the birds cause is huge.
Some say the birds have been attracted by the aromatic variety of rice—known as Kwamboka—which was recently introduced by the National Irrigation Authority.
Generally, returns on rice are far more decent compared to maize, or sugarcane, which is the other cash crop that is grown in these parts of the country. But unpredictable expenses such as birds could plunge a farmer into losses.
Currently, farmers are also grappling with high cost of fertiliser, a key input for the production of this cereal- the third most critical cereal after maize and wheat.
Additionally, irrigation farmers decry the high cost for water use to Water Resource Management Authority (Warma).
In Kisumu, where the Ahero Irrigation scheme is based, farmers are saying the previous administration used to spray the bird nests.
However, Professor Anyang Nyong’o’s government has refused to do that arguing it amounts to tinkering with the ecosystem. The bird menace is even creating enmity among farmers in Hola Irrigation scheme. It is said that the birds do not feed on locals’ rice, while the foreign farmers have to invest heavily in scaring them.
An expert attached to National Irrigation Authority (NIA) confirmed.
“You can’t believe it until you see it, but it happens. Perhaps there is something that the locals, Pokomo, put in their rice,” said the expert, who did not want to be named as they are not allowed to speak to media.
Tanui says that the increase in bird population is due to the fact that there is plenty of food and perfect environment to breed. Ahero and West Kano Irrigation schemes are predominantly public irrigation schemes that have been around for more than 50 years.
For all that time, the main crop has been rice. Thus, unlike in Hola where rice growing started recently, the birds around Ahero, and generations before them, know this as their eating ground.
Although farmers here have since diversified and are also growing other horticultural crops after harvesting, with more than 10,000 farmers served by the irrigation scheme.
Over 80,000 individuals are employed directly. The region produces 50,000 metric tonnes that goes into the national basket, or a contribution of up to Sh2 billion to the national cake.
But production of rice here, just like in other rice farms in the country, is not comparable to rice-growing giants like China, Vietnam and Pakistan where yields per acre are estimated at between seven and 10 metric tonnes.
In Kenya, yields are estimated at between 2.5 and three metric tonnes per acre. The high cost of production, including bird scaring, is to blame for the poor yields. A rice farmer in Kenya currently produces a kilogramme of the cereal by using Sh30, while the global average is much less, says Tanui.
“The farmer can’t compete on pricing,” says Tanui, adding that Kenya needs to work hard to bring down the cost of production, including seeds, electricity, fuel and fertilier.
Kenya still relies on imported rice to meet an insatiable appetite for this dish in urban areas. Annually, Kenyans consume 600,000 tonnes of rice against a local production of 180,000 tonnes. This means that Kenya spends close to Sh20 billion in foreign exchange to plug the deficit, money that could be put into other uses.
Not only is Kenya expected to increase production by increasing rice under irrigation, but there is also a need for cost management such as reducing the bird menace. Tanui says National Irrigation Authority is addressing the bird menace with the State Department of Crop Production which falls under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Consequently, they will soon introduce spraying programmes.
“In the next one or two weeks, they are going to spray the brooding sites in this region to reduce the bird population,” says Tanui.
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The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization
with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations,
television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group
is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in
matters of national and international interest.
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