Crops

The rise of jam, juices and foods from gathered prickly pears could now develop into widespread cactus farming, with farmers in China’s arid areas now producing nearly 3 tonnes a hectare of foods and feeds with almost no rain by planting and harvesting the apple cactus. The farmers are harvesting 2.8 tonnes a hectare of […]

Growing jack beans, farmers get a double shot in high protein food for their families and a doubling of the yield of their other crops as the bean restores health to rapidly degrading soils by cooling the soil, providing a soil erosion stopper, and adding green manure. Every year African soils lose up to 60kg

Solar dryers, affordable for groups of farmers, are slashing drying times by 48 hours saving 36 per cent of after-harvest crop losses. Marketed in East Africa by GrainPro, Solar Bubble Dryers dry grains, pulses, and vegetables even under rain in a protective bubble in just two to eight hours rather than the typical 54 hours

Maize storage bag manufacturers are helping farmers avoid half of after-harvest losses using revolutionary rodent-repelling bags that keep off the two main thieves of stored grains;  insects, and rats. In Kenya’s main maize-growing regions, rodents were second to small insects as the main causes of farmer losses after harvest. The country loses an estimated half

Farmers are turning to an ancient technology to return potassium to their soil on evidence that they are losing 10 per cent of the mineral which is vital to plant growth after each harvest. Potassium being used up far quicker than it can be returned to the soil presents Africa’s agriculture with a disaster in

More than 40,000 small scale farmers are registering in their wards to receive cheaper seeds, fertilisers and grain storage bags through an ongoing EU funded programme that aims to increase their yields by 60 per cent. Over 80 per cent of smallholder farmers in Kenya do not use improved certified seeds and still depend on

216, 000 smallholder farmers in Kenya have increased their farm incomes by 35 per cent in one year while farming on the same plot of land thanks to the springing up of farm dukas that sell fertilisers and improved quality seeds paid back by farmers slowly by slowly for eight months and also hold weekly

1. Position: Gardener  Employer: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints Location: Nairobi About the job: This position ensures the temple grounds reflect the beauty, cleanliness, and sacred nature of the temple experience. Maintain standards established by the First Presidency. Perform gardener/grounds keeping work, maintaining and caring for landscaped areas, sidewalks, driveways, building entrances, and

A farmer on the fertile slopes of Mount Kenya has switched her land from a planned maize and sorghum crop to pigeon pea to get a more certain harvest from the predicted drought ahead. Kenya’s short rains have begun late in 2024, and are forecast to last for little more than four weeks ahead, which

An online tool for Kenyan farmers has been delivering shocks to its users as they discover the crops they think are their biggest winners are sometimes really losers. The tool collects all the farmers’ costs across the year, in easy forms, from seeds to fertilisers, and their sales prices at the end, and tells them