October 2019

Mulching beats new herbicide restrictions on export products

As the horticultural consumer countries move to blacklist one of the commonest chemical used in controlling weeds, roundup, after links of its active component to cancer, experts say conservation agriculture and other strategies offer farmers one alternative solutions of penetrating the export market. The United States of America’s California state will on July 7, 2017 […]

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Limuru farmers coop cold rooms helps members keep produce fresh, beating market prices

Some 400 smallholder farmers in Kiambu, Nyandarua and Kajiado counties drawn together under Village Economic Empowerment, a village-based farmers’ cooperative in Limuru have built two cold rooms with different capacities to help the farmers who previously were selling their produce at throw-away prices to store and sell their produce while still fresh at favourable market

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Christmas melon extract cures deadly poultry Newcastle disease, cut farmers’ production costs

Poultry farmers can adopt Christmas melon (also called Tagiri) extract to cure the deadly and contagious Newcastle disease (ND) that attack their birds and avoid the use of antibiotics and other synthetic drugs that often raise their production costs and harm humans. According to a previous report by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on Newcastle

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Simple temporal structures keep bees from disturbances, increase production

Beekeepers can restrain animals and human beings among other strangers from disturbing the insects by constructing temporal structures a few metres from homesteads to house them and enable them to focus on their activities further increasing their productivity. In this, one may require about a quarter an acre to raise 20 beehives under trees and

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Government set to promote prawn farming, boost farmers income

Despite its introduction in Kenya in 1980s with most farms being located on flat land adjacent to sea water sources, such as tidal rivers or creeks, there is slow uptake of prawn farming in other areas prompting the government to promote it among farmers for food security and income. In this, Kenya Marine and Fisheries

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How to grow, harvest the delicate sugar snap for export

Despite the high returns sugar snap peas can offer to farmers when well managed, most growers do not understand how the entire process of producing the crop especially for international markets something which can results up to 100 per cent crop rejection by exporters. According to a 2010 case study on Nandarasi Gate Self-Help Group

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Kisii County farmer slashes production costs, using fishpond water for vegetable fertiliser

Instead of buying nitrogenous fertilisers for his vegetable garden, Dickson Mosota has eliminated these costs by tapping fish pond water for irrigation as well as for the supply of nutrients. Fish excrements are rich in urea, which is a compound of nitrogen and other elements. Nitrogen is one of the basic mineral elements responsible for

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Farmers bet on the cold temperature of Aberdare Forest to rear trout fish

Some two farmers in Nyandarua County are betting on the cold weather provided by the dense Aberdare Forest to rear money-minting trout fish which requires water with a temperature of between 10 to 18 degrees Celsius to thrive. For a long time, Daniel Gichimu has been known for Boer goats breeding at his Malewa Boer

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Bud-grafting cuts tamarind (mkwaju) maturity period by eight years

Farmers interested to grow Tamarindus indica commonly known as tamarind or mkwaju in Swahili can reduce by eight years the time the trees take to start bearing fruits through bud-grafting. According to a 2016 field guide by Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) on Valuable Trees and Shrubs of Kaya Mudzi Muvya Forest in Kilifi County,

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How to get rainwater harvesting services from Kenya Rainwater Association

Since its establishment and registration in 1994, most farmers in the country do not know much about Kenya Rainwater Association (KRA) which works with farmer groups especially in the arid and semi-arid areas in the country to help them harvest rain water to limit their overreliance on rainfall for their agricultural practices. According to the

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