Post: Sorghum farmers in Kerio Valley embrace mechanised farming methods

Farmers in Kerio Valley have been using the traditional way of farming, where much of the work is done manually.However, as things start improving in sorghum farming, they may soon change as they look forward to mechanised farming.According to the Chairman of Kamsiwet Cooperative Society, Paul Cherop, though sorghum does well in the arid area, farmers have given up due to various challenges, among them insecurity and lack of market.However, things took a turn for the better last year after the East African Breweries, in partnership with the County Government, gave farmers seeds for planting in last year's planting season by entering into a contract with them to buy sorghum at a cost of Sh56 per kilogramme.'With this, farmers started increasing the acreage under the crop, whereby last year we harvested 96,000 kg, earning us Sh4.1 million, and this year we are expecting to harvest 120 tonnes, which will improve our earnings to Sh6 million,' he said.Cherop said initially they started with 102 farmers, but with the evident success of sorghum farming, the number has increased to 430, adding that more farmers have expressed interest in joining them.Their efforts have been recognised by various partners, among them the Cereal Growers Association, who this week descended to the Kerio Valley with a combined harvester to introduce farmers to mechanised farming.George Njoroge, the Country Market Alliance (FMA) Coordinator, said they had come to the area to showcase the combined harvester at the Kamsiwet Irrigation Scheme, saying if it was successful, it would improve earnings for the farmers.According to the FMA coordinator, they realised that farmers were not only spending more time harvesting sorghum but were also losing a lot during harvesting, a challenge the machine would address.'The use of mechanised farming will result in lowering the cost of harvesting, reducing post-harvest loss, and also taking less time and effort,' he said.Saying that the machine was the first of its kind in the country for sorghum harvesting, Stephen Marua from Camco Equipment Machine said the harvester with the right soil and operator will take only one hour to harvest an acre of soghum, which has been taking farmers 10 days to perform the same job.David Kipchumba, one of the farmers, said the harvester will be of great help to them given that it does not only harvest sorghum but also shells.'We have been using a lot of money to hire farm hands first to harvest once the sorghum is mature and later to shell. With the combined harvester, it will not only save us time but also money,' he said.Cherop said with the machine they will expand their farming, saying there are more than 639 acres spread out in various irrigation schemes in the valley, citing Chepkum and Kapkamak Kabonon irrigation schemes, among others.The chairman said that with sorghum farming, the residents are able to meet their financial needs. 'Right now we are harvesting, which means that we will have money to pay school fees as our children go back to sch ool for the third term,' he said.'We will start planting a new crop by next month, and because sorghum takes only four months to mature, we will have our produce by December; therefore, we will not struggle to pay school fees in January,' he said.Njoroge, whose organisation, FMA, has been working with the farmers, said sorghum had given the farmers an alternative value chain, saying farmers in the area have mainly been lying on livestock to earn a livelihood.'While livestock is equally an income earner, a cow takes a long to mature before it can start generating any income, but with sorghum, it takes 3-4 months to mature, thus giving the farmer an alternative livelihood where they earn money at shorter intervals even as they continue rearing cattle,' he said.He called on farmers to embrace adoptive technology, which will ensure they enhance production by reducing the cost of production while increasing yields, adding that they should do it in a resilient way, bearing in mind the climate change phenome non currently being experienced, which he said was worse than any other conflict.He therefore called on farmers to ensure they have food for household consumption even as they commercialise their agricultural activities.'Over and above generating income, it's important to ensure you have food for the household as we are going through climate change, and therefore having food in the house keeps you going even as you commercialise,' he said.Njoroge said his organisation had linked over 3,000 farmers to markets where they sell various products grown in the area, adding that they were encouraging them to engage in agroforestry through the planting of fruit trees to conserve the environment and at the same time earn money for them.The area assistant chief, Daniel Chemweno, said that with sorghum farming taking root, cattle rustling activities, which had caused insecurity, had reduced as fewer farmers were keeping cows, adding that the sorghum was contributing to food security and better nutrition.Source : Kenya News Agency