By Francis Ndungu

Francis Kimani is earning more as a 4-acre maize farmer than he was as a mechanical engineer, by chopping off maize leaves at dough stage to harvest early and get a second crop of potatoes.

Francis, who now also runs a shop and posho mill in Limunga ward in Laikipia West, began farming maize in 2021 after abandoning wheat, which had failed to do well on his land due to poor soils. “I used to harvest less than 10 bags of wheat per acre because of stunted growth and low production,” he said.

From that point, Francis concentrated on reclaiming his land by applying manure during the off season. “I maximised fully the use of my land so the need of manure application in every year was a necessity to support the growth of my crops without exhausting my soil nutrients and minerals. During off season I would hire a tractor and carry all the manure to my farm before I ploughed it back,” he said.

As a dairy farmer, Francis had manure from his cattle. “When the season started, after planting, the collection of manure also started. I cleaned the cow shed and a poultry house daily and heaped the manure under a tree and covered it with a black polythene sheet to avoid volatilisation due to high temperatures in our region. I mixed the manure thoroughly after a week to aid a uniform decomposition,” he said.

“My farm became so fertile and production increased from 15 to 25 bags, but the weeds challenge became the biggest problem. The weeds grew very fast even after timely weeding and I could find myself weeding more than three times in a season, which was a bit expensive before I adopted herbicide method of weed control.”

“I paid Sh4,000 per acre to get my farm weeded where it was supposed to be done twice in a growing season, but however with manure applied on my farm, I weeded thrice raising the cost of production. This is after I realized that weeds grew again even after the second weeding affecting my production,” he said.

His solution was herbicides. “Manure is carried to the farm using a tractor and three men at the back of the trailer. The tractor moves with a systematic manner and a lowered speed while men up the tractor lowered the manure using spades spreading the manure on the farm. The method is repeated until the whole farm is covered with manure. After one day the farm is ploughed gently and manure is mixed with soil. After there planting holes are dug before the onset of rain. Just before the rain I planted my maize seeds with DAP which I normally mixed with Osho Thyne which speeds up nutrient’s uptake to the plants and also helps in moisture conservation. I preferred using planting holes other than ridges as holes reduced competition of nutrients and also reduced chances of flooding which was experienced on ridges when rain became excess affecting plant growth.”

“I normally plant one week before the rain guided by KAOP (Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform) planting two seeds per hole with a spacing of 75cm by 30cm. Two days after the rain I sprayed a post-emergence herbicide which controlled the already germinated weeds and also prevented weeds from germinating further for a whole season. I sprayed the herbicides at the rate of one liter per acre which its cost was Sh2,200 per liter meaning I just sprayed 4 liters in my farm. The herbicides worked so effectively in such a way that I did not carry any more weeding in my farm saving hugely the cost of production,” he said.

Francis said the herbicides helped him cut down costs. “After adopting herbicide as a method of weed control I was able to save more than Sh39,000 because the herbicides were so effective, convenient and cheap than weeding,” he said.

The fertility from the manure also enabled him to avoid topdressing. “I also got rid of topdressing as my farm was fertile and when it reached topdressing time the manure had already broken down and released nutrients to the soil and thus my plants utilised it thus there was no need of further fertilizer addition which was also very expensive. Instead of topdressing I sprayed foliar fertilizer to break shoot dormancy that might be there and again the price of the foliar was cheap and affordable,” he said.

“The cost of fertilizer hiked every time thus the idea of using foliar fertilizer was my big achievement. I started spraying foliar fertilizers when my maize was knee high. I preferred foliar rich in NPK which boosted my crops vigorously with an interval of one month up to milking stage,” he said.

Francis ensured that his maize received all required minerals despite avoiding topdressing, and he harvested more than usual. “Two weeks after tasseling my maize were very healthy and strong and most of them twined as a result of manure and foliar,” he said.

At dough stage, Francis began cutting the crop. “Immediately after dough stage I chopped off all the leaves and tassels just slightly above the kernel with the use of machete. I gave my cattle the cut forage and heaped others at the edge of my farm where they got dried in few days and later aligned them on the lines after planting potatoes in between the maize lines. The maize residuals conserved moisture for potatoes because rain was not enough after the end of the season. The residual also decomposed to add fertility to the soil hence improving soil drainage,” he explained.

According to him, this also helped break pest and disease cycles. “The method of planting potatoes immediately after dough stage of maize helped in breaking pests’ cycle of maize and also diseases such as maize lethal necrotic disease which occurred as a result of pests’ attack. Most of the stem borers and aphids were also eliminated during the chopping of the leaves and got starved as the leaves and stem dried,” he said.

“I planted my potatoes and they emerged properly and aligned the maize residuals in between the maize and potatoes lines immediately after first weeding. The maize residuals decomposed as I kept weeding where never weeds emerged making the residuals to get into contact with the soil which made them to rot faster as the microorganism in the soil orchestrated faster decomposition,” he explained.

Francis said this constant mixing of soil and residues nourished his farm further. “My journey of improving fertility of my land did not stop at that point since after maize residual decomposition my soil got nourished once again thus supporting healthy crops. I also kept on mixing soil with residuals to facilitate faster decomposition of the same so as to release nutrients to the soil for the next season,” he said.

He also preferred short-maturing crops after maize. “Potatoes, beans, sunflowers are my preferred crops since they took shorter period to mature and they are able to utilize the available moisture in the soil even after rain stopped. Covering my land with maize residuals helped preserve moisture for my potatoes until they matured,” he said.

By chopping leaves, Francis was also able to dry his maize faster. “After maize leaves chopping, they only took shorter period of time to dry of less than 25 days and I started harvesting before everybody in my region. I normally plant varieties which take 6 months to mature since their grain are very heavy and they are resistant to storage pests not like short-seasoned variety which are light and easily destroyed by storage pests. I harvested before everybody in my village as I was the only one who chopped my maize leaves. Chopping aided in air circulation in my farm which prevented my maize from rotting as plant leaves covered the ground preventing evaporation to occur which later caused rotting of the maize as experienced on other farmers. My maize dried faster and helped in timely harvesting which facilitated good market before others could harvest,” he said.

This enabled him to profit on both crops. “The method helped me plant my potatoes thus maximizing the use of land and increased profit after I harvested 15 bags of potatoes per acre and harvesting more than 25 bags of maize per acre selling them at Sh3,000 before farmers could harvest theirs which caused the market get flooded as maize prices dwindled when farmers harvested. My land fertility also increased and helped me to avoid inorganic fertilizers application which reduced the cost of production and caused acidity of the soils. My land production increased since initially I used to harvest 15 bags of maize but after adopting new method of soil preservation and fertility my production hiked to 25 bags and above,” he said.

Francis said the idea of chopping maize leaves came from necessity. “My farm looked unique after chopping off the leaves leaving everybody curious. The idea came in my mind because during animal feeds crisis I used to pluck off side leaves in my maize in order to save my cattle from starvation but however even after doing so my maize grew normally and from there it became a routine and later an idea of planting again after chopping dominated my mind because the land looked almost empty especially when I chopped off the stem above the kernels,” he said.

He said harvesting was also easier. “After chopping of my maize harvesting became easy because the excessive leaves were removed thus no struggling to spot the kernel to harvest. I normally cut my maize during harvesting and carry them at the edge of the farm to avoid damaging my potatoes where harvesting was done and later after harvesting potatoes the stalk was returned back to the farm. There was no leftovers of maize in the farm since the kernel was easily spotted thus harvesters did a well job not leaving any behind,” he explained.

By avoiding excess fertilizer and weeding, Francis cut his production costs sharply. “For maize I only spent less than Sh70,000 in production in my four acres and got more than Sh300,000 in return. Sh70,000 included cost of ploughing, DAP cost, manure transportation, labor, herbicides, foliar costs, harvesting and chopping costs. For harvested potatoes I preferred selling them during the following season when the farmers were planting and the demand of potatoes planting seeds went high as Sh500 per bucket enabling me to fetch more than Sh100,000 on the same,” he said.