Africa Economy: Small scale farmers in Kenya bet on "plant clinics" to feed the nation

George Wang'ombe, a primary school mathematics teacher, spent most of his youth in a classroom teaching children how to play with figures.

Now in his mid-forties, Wang'ombe is thinking of ditching the chalk because as he puts it, as much as he spends much of his time adding up and subtracting figures, his bank account continues to read negative.

With five children to raise and a high cost of living, Wang'ombe is looking elsewhere to increase his income. And with all the success stories on farming flying in all corners of the country, Wang'ombe seeks to get his solution from his 5-acre farm in Bahati, Nakuru County.

He hasn't shown so much interest in farming in the past, but with his neighbours and friends back at Bahati earning millions from their farms, Wang'ombe hopes he will finally strike his gold in the farm he hasn't paid so much attention to.

"I have not been so keen on going big on farming, but I think now is the time. My neighbor last year harvested watermelons worth over one million shillings, I think if he did it I can also do it," said Wang'ombe.

He is among many other Bahati residents who only farm to feed their families. But with research showing that Kenyan farmers have the potential to feed the country's population and even produce more for export, small scale farmers are now putting their tools to work.

Wang'ombe is however keen on learning from his neighbour Mzee James Wambiri, who is now famous for his bumper watermelons harvest. Most of his neighbours trickle in and out of his farm to pick a few tips on how to go about it.

Wambiri who decided to venture into serious farming in 2014 told Xinhua that the secret lies in knowing one's farm in terms of soil, its humidity, fertility and the type of crop that can thrive in that specific type of soil.

"I was like many other of my friends and neighbours who had no clue on the type of crops to plant in our farms, most of us knew only of maize and beans and nothing beyond this. When I realized my farm was just wasting away, I took soil samples to Egerton University where it was tested and I was advised on the kinds of crops that would do well in my farm," he said, adding "watermelon was one of the crops I was told could thrive well in Bahati and true to that, my first harvest earned me over one million shillings yet I had invested less than 100,000 shillings."

Wambiri, also a former teacher, attributes his success to a programme, known as Plantwise, by the Ministry of Agriculture which has been equipping farmers with crop health advice.

Running on a trial basis in Kenya, the programme has been working with local extension services to provide smallholder farmers with access to advice from a "plant clinic". Pests and diseases are diagnosed by trained "plant doctors" after examining crop samples, who then suggest affordable treatments which use locally available resources.

"The community-based plant clinics have been providing us with vital information on farming, we take our 'sick' plants to the clinics where we are educated on what to do and how to avoid such diseases and this has really helped us in the way we do our farming," said Wambiri.

By diagnosing pests and diseases, and providing advice at no cost to farmers, it is hoped that the initiative will go a long way towards addressing the problem of inadequate extension services in Kenya.

"Farmers have not been assisted properly in the past due to the limited number of extension service providers," explained James Wanjohi of the Department of Extension and Training, within the Ministry of Agriculture.

Modeled along the human health services, plant clinics were introduced in the country in 2010, but due to some apprehension about embracing new technologies, the impacts weren't really felt in 2012. Since then, plant clinics have been credited with boosting yields through timely interventions, creating a repository of emerging diseases that guides scientific research, and protecting the country from international threats.

Though Kenya is yet to have elaborate and advanced interventions, private research groups and the government are taking baby steps in addressing threats to food security in a sector that provides income to more than 75 percent of the population and contributes 30 percent to the country's GDP.

Led by the research institution Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI), in partnership with Kenyan research institutions and government, the model has trained approximately 268 plant doctors and recorded 11,600 plant health queries.

Wang'ombe and Wambiri are among other farmers in Nakuru County seeking to reap large from such interventions. Endit