A farmer on the fertile slopes of Mount Kenya has switched her land from a planned maize crop (and planned sorghum 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 is only half the normal rainy season and will deliver far less rain than normal. This is unlikely to be sufficient for most short-season crops.
However, pigeon peas, more commonly known as Mbaazi, can grow in 65mm of rain. They can survive for three months without any water and are often farmed in the country’s semi-arid areas of Eastern and the Coast. They were also among the drought-tolerant crop seeds distributed to farmers in 2012 that helped Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti recover from their worst drought in more than 60 years.
Farmers such as Jacinta Nkirote are now adopting the peas as a drought management tool.
“I had been waiting for the first day of rains to start planting because most farmers who did sow maize seeds mid-last month in readiness for the usual time the regular short rains start in October have seen them scorched by the hot soil. Even though it’s begun raining a bit now, we are in the second week of November. The rains are predicted to be strong through to the second week of December. Even if they rain throughout December, that gives us at most two months of rain which is not enough to carry most of our regular crops such as maize through to harvest,” explained Jacinta, a farmer in Nkubu.
The farmer who has sold all the maize in her granary and predicts a dire food situation in Kenya in 2025 said that she will have to dig deep into her pockets to buy food for her family because she will not be planting anything but four acres of pigeon peas, which are more commonly called Nchungu by the Meru. They will be carried to harvest by the long rains in 2025 in June or July.
As instances of droughts increase in Kenya making it harder to grow commercial crops such as maize more time and money has been allocated to developing better pigeon pea varieties in Kenya. Egerton University and KALRO Katumani have developed:
The KARI Mbaazi 2 which matures in 180-270 days and has a potential of 5.8 bags an acre.
It is planted in the short rains season and grows up to four meters tall and is also cut after harvest to make animal fodder or firewood. According to KALRO it flowers in two to three months and is loved by buyers and farmers because it gives large pods which are easier to shell with seeds that weigh 18-20g/100 seeds.
Another variety is Mituki which matures in 125-135 days. This means that unlike KARI Mbaazi 2 it can be harvested two times in the year.
It is also higher yielding, producing 7.5 – 15.6 bags/acre in two seasons, and also has large pods and grains which weigh 19 g/100 seeds. It also tolerant to pigeon pea’s main crop disease, fusarium wilt.
Egerton Mbaazi 1 is cream coloured which most buyers prefer and is harvested after 140-160 days. It has a yield of 8-18 bags annually and is also tolerant to fusarium wilt.
Although most of the pigeon peas harvested are eaten by the families of farmers to provide them with food during times when most other crops have failed, KALRO estimates that one acre of the crop can be grown for Sh30,000 and be sold for Sh 67,000 with green peas being highly marketable.
The crop is planted 1.2 x 0.5 and 1.5 x 0.5 mm apart for medium duration and long duration pigeon peas respectively. To avoid diseases in pegion peas, rotate them with crops which are not legumes like cereals or using yellow sticky traps at a rate of 10-12 traps/ha.
According to the Crop Trust, pigeon peas also helpsto improve the health of the soil and increase the performance of future crops.
KALRO-Katumani: 0736333294