By George Munene The Ministry of Agriculture has warned of a 360 million kilogram fish shortage in the next four years. “There is already a significant gap between the projected demand and production. This is expected to increase to 360 thousand metric tons by 2025,” said Lawrence Omuhaka, the Chief Administrative Secretary for Livestock and […]
Kenya facing 360M kilogram fish deficit Read More »
By George Munene Through Microsoft’s 4Africa initiative over 50,000 smallholder farmers and 50 cooperatives in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire will be equipped with digital skills and training that will help them boost their yields and incomes as well as modernise their supply chains. As digital tools such as cloud computing, computing systems, connectivity,
Microsoft to boost small-scale African farmer incomes through digital training Read More »
By George Munene Kenya is looking to increase its coffee exports to South Korea by 10 -11 tonnes. “At South Korea’s 2021 Coffee Expo there was an interest in additional orders of up to 11 tons of our coffee from Korean coffee cooperatives. This reaffirmed the market’s affinity for Kenyan coffee,” said Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary
Kenya to increase coffee exports to South Korea Read More »
By George Munene Centum Investment PLC has kicked off the construction of a Sh1 billion cashew nut processing plant at Vipingo, Kilifi County. The factory is scheduled to be operationalised by the first quarter of 2022 and will have a processing capacity of over 6,000 tons of raw nuts offering a market to farmers who
Sh1bn Vipingo factory a boon to cashew nut farmers Read More »
By George Munene Kagoka Foods, an Agritech startup, and social enterprise is partnering with small-scale farmers to promote the growing of tuber, root, and banana crops in Kenya by giving them a market for yams, arrow roots, pumpkins, sweet potato, and bananas. The company has a focus on promoting the growing, processing, value addition, packaging,
Online marketplace opens for banana, tuber & root crop farmers Read More »
By George Munene Mazao Organics, a non-synthetic fertilizer manufacturer has a ready market for various organically grown crops and is looking for farmers across the country to cultivate chemical-free tomatoes, onions, carrots, capsicums, potatoes, sweet potatoes, arrow roots, spring onions, cabbages, spinach, sukuma, dhania, ground peas, matoke, and iceberg lettuce. The company which currently has 60 large and
Mazao recruiting organic horticulture outgrowers Read More »
By George Munene Syntropic agriculture/successional agroforestry is an integrated farming approach that involves the growing of marketable fruit and wood trees coupled with productive agricultural food sources. It helps regenerate soil biodiversity without the application of any chemical inputs. This farming model was originated by Swiss farmer Ernst Götschin. Settling in the 1980s in a
Integrating trees into farms offers extra income & regenerates soils Read More »
By George Munene Desmodium is a legume that offers a rich source of crude protein (10-17 per cent). For smallholder farmers it increases dietary nitrogen content, offering a cost-effective supplement to the usually fed Napier grass which contains 7 to 10 per cent protein. Nitrogen is a structural component of milk, therefore increasing it in
Desmodium and Napier diet raises milk yield Read More »
By George Munene The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will open its storage facilities to wheat farmers this season to help them avoid post-harvest handling losses. The move will also enable farmers to keep their produce in reserve, fetching better future prices when markets are not flooded and the amount of cheaper imports has
NCPB opens storage facilities to wheat farmers to help mitigate losses Read More »
By George Munene Grafting refers to the joining of the upper part of a plant (scion) to part of the stem and the root system (rootstock) of another plant. The horticultural technique is being employed by Kenyan coffee farmers to develop disease and drought-tolerant varieties. “Most coffee farms are inherited, therefore the trees grown are
Farmers develop disease & drought-tolerant coffee varieties through grafting Read More »