Farmers in the Sugar zone urged to focus on Agro-Ecology

With the changing weather patterns and global warming which has continued to trouble farmers in sugar zone counties consequently pausing the threat to food security, farmers in Busia, Siaya and Kisumu counties have been urged to embrace agro-ecology which is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Speaking at Alupe University during the Lake region economic bloc summit, Koitalel Samoei University agronomist Bruno Ogana noted that there was need for resilience with the current prolonged droughts and floods which has hit the food production impacting negatively on agriculture.

Bruno however noted that over dependence on chemical fertilizers which has been widely used in sugar and tobacco farming in Busia and Siaya counties, has altered the soil PH and organic components which are useful matter in the soil.

And in order to address these effects, Koitaleel University in partnership with Bio Kenya, has embarked on capitalizing on wastes from the sugar factories together with animal wastes and incorporating Black soldier fly which has ability to decompose the organic waste into organic fertilizers which is vital in restoring soil organic components and soil PH required for productive farming.

“Organic nutrients are necessary for plants to flourish. You must be aware that for plants to thrive, they require a variety of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. However, you also need to understand when and how plants require these nutrients,” said Bruno.

“Organic fertiliser is anything that contains organic carbon. We know that organic carbon is the building block of all life on earth along with hydrogen and oxygen. So, organic fertiliser is any animal waste or manure, plant material perhaps even compost, anything that is made up of natural substances that are worked back into the soil,” he added.

The Bio-Char project seeks to improve food productivity and income generation among smallholder farmers in Busia, Kisumu and Siaya Counties through the adoption of biochar and insect-composted organic fertilizers (ICOF).

The two-year project valued at Sh 171 million is financed by the French Embassy in Kenya through the National Research Fund (NRF) and will be implemented by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), University of Embu, Koitaleel Samoei University College (KUSC), French Centre for International Agricultural Research and Development, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD) and the Latin Association of Biochar in Cuba in close collaboration with farmers and all stakeholders in the Agricultural sector.

The sentiment was echoed by Esther Nafula from Bio Kenya noting that farmers already have enough material to generate their own fertilizers which will in the long run restore the soil texture for better production.

“Management of organic waste is a major global challenge. Currently, 0–70% of organic waste is disposed of in landfills, where it is tightly compacted to economise space. This leads to the anaerobic microbial decomposition of organic waste into methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” noted Nafula.

Moses Otieno an agronomist from Kisumu, noted the counties of Busia, Kisumu and Siaya have the worst soil texture as a result of chemical used in cane farming which has damaged the organic components in the soil hence the need for farmers in the three counties to shift to the use of organic fertilizers to restore the organic matter in the soil.

“The project will go a long way in addressing the high cost of fertilizer that hampers agricultural production and therefore play a critical role in ensuring food security and reduced malnutrition in the population in the project target areas,” said Otieno.

The Bio-char project also aims at addressing the environmental menace caused by municipal waste and provide a better avenue of managing waste from sugar and rice production that end up polluting the environment, observed a representative of a key sugar producer company at the project launch.

Busia, Kisumu and Siaya which are the model counties for this project have the worst soil matter, but also have the sugar waste vital component in generating the organic fertilizer.

By Absalom Namwalo