With mixed cropping, you don't have to worry about pests in your greenhouse

The greatest challenge to farming is diseases and finding the most economical way of controlling them is in every farmer’s interest.

In a bid to beat this challenge and maximise yields, Benjamin Kamanda decided to take a rough route rarely trod by agribusiness investors in Kenya — mixed cropping in the greenhouse.

“When I bought the land and settled on farming mid this year, many people were surprised. My close friends suggested I take a bank loan and do some high-rise buildings as they had done,” says Kamanda.

“I built seven greenhouses with the help of an expert and started mixed cropping.”

And last week, he got his first paycheck of Sh100,000 after a long wait and he was all smiles as he displayed the healthy products from his farm before everyone who had turned up for the harvest.

“I am so happy to have received my first pay check today. I decided to do it differently and now you can see the fruits,” says Kamanda.

In the seven acres that he bought from Diamond Property Merchants Limited in Isinya, he does not do any other investment but farming.

“After a wide consultation, I chose to plant tomatoes, red and green capsicum and cucumbers in the same greenhouse,” he says.

Different

Although Kamanda started the farming practice for the sole reason that it was rare and he wanted to be different, he did not know that it would help him to manage pests and diseases.

When Smart Harvest visited Kamanda, he was with his agronomist, Robert Mwenda, from Greenlife Crop Protection Africa Limited, whom Diamond Property Merchants Limited officials had introduced him to. Kamanda says Mwenda supported him in his new venture, providing useful advice whenever the farmer seemed stuck.

“I was advised to do tomatoes and capsicum because they are among the few crops with a large market around here,” says Kamanda.

Mwenda says mixed cropping reduces phytophagous by increasing natural enemies around the greenhouse, making it difficult for the pest to survive to maturity.

The various crops also make it difficult for the pest to find a host crop.

“Mixed cropping offers more ground cover, particularly important for diurnal enemies and discourages them from moving from one crop to the other. Before the pests move around the crops searching for their host plant, their life cycle will have been broken,” explains Mwenda.

He says the mixed crops also make it difficult for pests that use odour to locate the host plant because the smell produced by the various crops confuses the pest.

Mwenda now says that going by the projections after the first harvest, he expects to reap 50-60 tonnes in his seven greenhouses, which translate into one acre when pieced together.

“In total, the greenhouses, which are currently holding about 1,000 plants with each plant giving approximately 10 fruits after full a harvest, Kamanda will earn a total of close to Sh1 million,” says Mwenda, adding that going by the current market prices, Kamanda will sell each fruit for Sh10.

He says not many farmers practice mixed cropping in greenhouses and it was advisable for Kamanda to have ventured into something different, as this would give him an edge over others.

However, this venture has not been easy for Kamanda. When he acquired the land, he had to dig deeper into his pocket to invest in the greenhouse. When he approached Diamond Property Merchants for advice, they offered to bring seeds, free training, marketing and transport when the crops were ready for harvesting.

“We bring farmers together and give them an agronomist to guide them from planting through to harvesting to enable them to realise high quality produce to fetch higher revenues,” says Edward Nganga, the land procurement manager at Diamond Property Merchants Limited.

“We even insure the crops to ensure the investor gets a return on their investment in case of any risk since it is a risky business,” says Nganga.

He says, however, he was surprised when he learnt the kind of farming that Kamanda wanted to do in his greenhouse.

“I had never heard of mixed cropping in a greenhouse. He chose a rare route but we decided to support him like anyone else around, though with a bit of cautiousness,” says Nganga.

“Many of our clients rarely chose mix cropping, all of them do single cropping.”

However, mixed cropping requires big greenhouses as small ones limit the yields for each crop.