January 2023

Galla Goat rearing in kenya

Farmers shift to goat farming to withstand climate change

Farm­ers in Nyando, West­ern Kenya are shift­ing from maize farm­ing and or­din­ary live­stock keep­ing to cli­mate smart ag­ri­cul­ture that helps them adapt to the chan­ging cli­mate. The rough and dusty road leads us to John Obuom’s homestead in Kowalla vil­lage Nyakach dis­trict, Kisumu County. Obuom has taken up rear­ing of gala goats and Red Mas­aai sheep …

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Vet schools farmers of arid Mwingi on pasture preservation

A veterinary officer in Mwingi area of Eastern Kenya is training farmers in the arid area to mitigate against changes in weather through pasture preservation technology with over 60 farmers now comfortably taking care of their animals. Dr Jim Katu who received scholarship by Australia Awards Africa Fellowship in Agriculture Livestock Course decided to return …

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Apis mellifera Western honey bee

Farmers forced to purchase bees as pollinator population dwindles

Renowned biologist Josan Salk once said that there would be no life on earth within 50 years if all insects disappeared. Salk’s conclusion stems from the fact that more than 85 per cent of global vegetation requires insects for pollination, something that makes the bugs a key factor for continued crop production. Yet, and sadly, …

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Lack of market information impoverishing smallholder farmers

Small holder farmers, who account for 90 per cent of the agricultural output in Africa, are extremely poor, because of poor market information for their produce, a study by the Agricultural Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) say.   The report revealed that 85 per cent of smallholder farmers lack information and connectivity to lucrative markets …

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Trenches enable Machakos farmer harvest run-off water

As the long rain sea­sons starts, 83-year-old Muia Kusenga is re­mov­ing the ac­cu­mu­lated silt from the trenches to cre­ate space for col­lect­ing run-off water from the nearby road for later ir­rig­a­tion. Kusenga, who has dug more than 10 trenches in his farm in Machakos County, says the water helps him in ir­rig­at­ing the fruits for …

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Yara announces carbon trading plan for local farmers

By George Munene Yara East Africa’s Kenya manager William Ng’eno has announced plans by the giant fertiliser manufacturer to partner with local farmers enabling them to earn from carbon trading. “We have an initiative around regenerative agriculture where farmers will be able to signup and earn carbon credits from good practices they will be implementing …

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Better seeds help African farmers see higher yields and incomes

  Mil­lions of farm­ers in Africa are now har­vest­ing two to three times more grain com­pared to 10 years ago thanks to im­proved avail­ab­il­ity of and ac­cess to high yield­ing, high-qual­ity seed ac­cord­ing to es­tim­ates by the Al­li­ance for a Green Re­volu­tion in Africa (AGRA). In a  pub­lic­a­tion track­ing the work of the Pro­gramme for …

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How to improve smallscale farmer produce and earnings

A char­ac­ter­istic fea­ture of Kenya’s small­holder ag­ri­cul­ture is the dom­in­ance of primary pro­duc­tion. This nor­mally in­volves pro­duc­tion of low volume of pro­duce at the in­di­vidual farm level for sub­sist­ence and sub­sequent mar­ket­ing of sur­plus in raw or semi-pro­cessed form. Lim­ited on-farm and off-farm pro­cessing of ag­ri­cul­tural pro­duce has trans­lated to low prices, fewer job op­por­tun­it­ies …

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Cross-county benchmarking enables Machakos farmers increase production and marketing

A group of farm­ers from Machakos County is im­prov­ing on-farm pro­duc­tion and mar­ket­ing of their pro­duce thanks to in­ter­coun­try bench­mark­ing, an idea that has seen the farm­ers visit three coun­tries within the East Africa re­gion to learn from their fel­low farm­ers about good ag­ro­nom­ical prac­tices. Machakos Farm­ers Am­bas­sad­ors which was formed in 2014 with 200 …

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