Farming techniques increase income and crop production in Makueni County

Good agricultural practices increase yield and Income

Boniface Mutua Mbiti is a 48 year-old father of four children and a member of the Amuka Hub in Masue location, Makueni Sub-County, Makueni County.  He earns most of his income from growing Sorghum and green grams on his 5 acre piece of land. He decided to venture into farming to help support his family.

“I used to cultivate for family consumption and for sale but I did not have the standards. ‘ Nilikua nalima mahindi alafu inakosa soko naeka kwa nyumba inakaa na inaharibika,” said Mutua.

Amuka Hub started in 2018 and has 68 farmer members. The members cultivate a variety of crops in their farms. They are among 2,548 farmers, benefiting from CGA’s Cereal Value Chain Enhancement Project (CVCEP) in the four Counties namely; Makueni, Kitui, Embu and Tharaka Nithi that supports improved productivity and adoption of climate smart agriculture technologies, strengthens the agribusiness capacity of farmer hubs and enhances market access among smallholder farmers. The project has supported pre-production meetings, training agribusiness advisors for the purpose of sustainability, establishing crop demonstration plots, trainings on good agricultural practices and establishment of farmer hubs that serves as aggregation and service centers.

Before the project began in Makueni County, agricultural productivity was very low due to rudimentary farming techniques and poor farming practices among the small holder farmers.

Since 2018, CGA trained members of the Amuka Hub in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) such as proper spacing, crop rotation and row cropping, use of certified seeds and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) to enhance agronomic skills and the adoption of climate smart technologies including early planting, use of fertilizers, use of cover crops, planting drought tolerant crops and minimum tillage among other CSA practices.   In order to create awareness and ensure farmers practice the technologies, CGA established crop demo plots showcasing best agronomic practices, crop varieties and CSA technologies.

The project also organized farmer exchange visits to learn CSA technologies and practices. Amuka Hub members visited Tharaka Nithi and Bomet Counties where they learnt how to commercialize their farming activities through the adoption of proper agronomic practices, proper management of aggregation and adoption of improved agricultural technologies.

“In 2018, October to December rains were very little but those who used CSA technologies harvested enough produce and farmers saw that technology was good,” said Mutua.

By applying the skills and the adoption of climate smart technologies he learned from the trainings, Mutua has improved his farm quality with good practices. Mutua harvested 8 to 10 bags in 2019, compared to 2 to 3 bags before the project intervened.

The training on market intelligence, contract farming and negotiation for better prices with the output buyers, has helped Mutua realize a growth in his farm profits.  “We were trained farming from the market, not from the farms; It was more on market demand, what is the need as per the market” said Mutua

“Before the project I used to harvest 800 kilograms in 2 acres, but after attending the trainings I harvested 1.5 tons from 2 acres of land and the second time I planted I saw increased production to 2.2 tons. My farm yield has increased. We sell a kilogram for Kshs. 32 up from Kshs 26.  “In 2019, I sold what I harvested at Kshs 70,000 and bought dairy cows,” said Mutua.

Cereal Value Chain Enhancement Project funded by Christian Aid and implemented by Cereal Growers Association (CGA) aimed at developing an inclusive, resilient and sustainable green grams and sorghum value chain that improves the livelihoods of small-scale farmers. CVEP interventions contributes to the growth of the cereal and pulse sub-sector in the selected counties and a contribution to the Pillar 1 of the Big Four Agenda – Achieving food security and nutrition.