With a farm pond, my crops flourish, rain or shine

Mr Albanus Kamuti tends to crops inside a greenhouse at his farm in Mwala, Machakos County where he practices integrated farming. [Phillip Muasya, Standard]

In dry parts of Malumani village, Mwala location in Machakos County, less than an acre piece of land would mean nothing to most farmers, many of whom rely on rain fed agriculture.

But on a three quarter piece of land, Albanus Kamuti, 35, has changed the face of farming in Ukambani and put to shame the erratic rains.

On his farm, Kamuti practises integrated farming, with portions of the farm dedicated to chicken rearing, fish farming, horticulture and dairy farming.

“I have gained a lot of knowledge on how to maximise the use of my small piece of land without putting any of the farming activities into constraints,” the farmer says while tending to tomatoes and kale plants in a greenhouse.

On this small piece of land, Kamuti keeps close to 100 chicken – both Kienyeji and Kenbro which he says are highly marketable in local hotels. He sells a medium sized chicken at between Sh600 and Sh700 and prefers to sell them when they are of medium size.

He also keeps three dairy cows of Friesian type. Currently, only one has calved and is giving him 12 litres of milk a day. He sells a litre at between Sh60 and Sh80 and the demand is ever high.

On another section of the farm, Kamuti has put up a medium sized green house where he grows tomatoes – korazone variety and kales under drip irrigation.

Currently, the greenhouse has 263 tomato plants with each plant expected to yield 20 kilos. A 20kg bucket of tomatoes would fetch between Sh1,000 and Sh1,500.

“I grow the tomatoes twice per year, the trick is to time so that I harvest when there is little supply in the market so as to fetch good prices,” he says. He expects to harvest his current crops at the onset of long rains in November when the demand is high and supply low.

To prevent the spread of diseases in the greenhouse, Kamuti has mastered a trick of sourcing for virgin soils from outside and using it in the greenhouse on each planting season. This ensures maximum control of soil disease thus minimal use of chemicals, he explains.

And lately the farmer has introduced fish farming as his latest venture. His fish pond teems with growing tilapia fish which he hopes to harvest in not so distant future.

“I want to take advantage of the increasing demand for fish in local markets. I have done a market survey and I’m convinced the demand is there,” he observes. The local markets include Mwala, Masii, Matuu and Machakos towns where daily consumption of fish is skyrocketing.

The beauty with integrated farming, Kamuti says, is that the activities mutually benefit from each other thus bringing the cost of running them down.

For instance, he uses chicken droppings to feed his fish and the chicken would in return feed on fish scales that are rich in proteins.

In addition, chicken droppings are also dried and fed to the cows while fresh cow dung, which is rich in vitamins, is fed to the chicken. “In integrated farming, minimal goes to waste,” Kamuti remarks.

The farmer who earns between Sh40,000 and Sh60,000 per month after deducting his expenses started with only five chicken in 2011 and afterwards bought an incubator with capacity to hatch 42 eggs. Through the sales of chicken, he was able to buy a dairy cow and lately has added two more.

From the proceeds, Kamuti has enrolled his three children to a private academy and recently bought a plot which he plans to develop.

So how did the farmer beat the harsh weather and water shortage to succeed in agriculture? Constructing a farm pond to collect run off water during the rains is his trick. The 5,000 litre farm pond has come in handy for his commercial crops. He also uses the same water to grow nappier grass for his cows.

To irrigate his crops, Kamuti pumps the water to an erected tank from the farm pond using a foot pump. The water is then released from the tank and feeds the pipes through gravity.

Kamuti is part of the farmers who have been trained in successful dryland integrated farming under Drylands Development Project, an initiative of the World Vision. He hails the training as an eye opener.

“The aim of the project is to transit farmers from subsistence farming to commercial farming through climate smart production. On farm rain water harvesting is one of the key components of the project to improve food security and build resilience for climate change in arid and semi arid regions,” says Emanuel Fondo, the World Vision manager in charge of the project in Machakos County.

Mr Fondo notes that under the project which started in 2017, 18 sand dams have been constructed across Machakos County to bolster water and food security. He adds that about 150 farmers have been supported to engage in irrigation.


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Agriculture;Farming;Crops