Grow Organic and achieve maximum yields from a small portion of land

Kiambu,

Thursday November 16, 2023

KNA by Wangari Ndirangu

Farmers are being urged to move towards organic agricultural system that focuses on achieving maximum yields from a minimum area of land, while simultaneously increasing biodiversity and sustaining the soil fertility.

Sam Nderitu, founder of Global Intensive Agriculture Centre of Kenya (G-BIACK) in Kiambu County trains small holder farmers on agro-ecological farming with aim of eradicating poverty and also improving their living standards.

“Global intensive is one of the many forms of agroecology. And it targets very small holder farmers that own one to five acres of land and farmers that want to increase their production,” he told KNA.

He noted that going organic is the most sustainable way of farming because it entails improving the soils using the resources that the farmer has.

One of the benefits of going organic, Nderitu says is of course addressing climate change by not using pesticides that produces carbon into the atmosphere and another is feeding on healthy foods that do not bring about disease such as cancer.

He explained that going organic means using what they call a closed loop system where all the food produced can also be recycled. “For example, if a farmer produces maize and beans and other crops, the waste of these crops is supposed to return to the same soil”, he said . 

He added that through feeding of livestock the farmers can also produce manure by converting the family manure into “Boma composting.” Boma compost is manure that has more carbon materials or carbon resources than nitrogen so a farmer does not need to pump in a lot of nitrogen in the soil.

Nderitu explained that growing subsistence food for the family, a farmer requires at least one eighth of an acre.

“An 1/8 of an acre according to the research that we have carried out is able to feed one person throughout the year and the farmer will be able to produce the food and at the same time produce income out of that one eighth what is required is the skill”, he said. 

Many times when farmers are urged to go organic, they normally expect to do it immediately but Nderitu warns that going organic normally takes almost 6 years to transition fully from conventional to organic farming.

“In order for a home to become fully organic, it is a process. It entails taking one step at a time because you want to reduce or even keep on stopping the use of conventional inputs and adopt the organics. One will have to use a lot of organic matter, pump it into the soil as they reduce chemical fertilizers”, he noted. 

Kenyan soils he said are very acidic and that is why food production has been declining. “I am not saying that soil that has higher acidity levels is totally bad because there are some crops that like that kind of soil, but the majority of crops do not like 4.0PH and below acidic levels thus reviving the soils is going organic.

Nderitu said that Kenya is importing a lot of food from other countries because our soils are dead. “If you are able to focus on soil fertility management, if you are able to focus on how to raise the fertility of our soils, and that is test the soils first before you think about growing any food, from there you will be able to understand what elements, what nutrients are needed in that soil and get the manure.

Any cured manure, he explained, has the elements that are needed by the plant, because one feeds the soil and the soil feeds the plant as opposed to applying chemical fertilizers in the soil which feeds the plant and destroys the soil.

“Kenyans have to wake up and think about the soil, because when talking about the soil, you are also talking about the generations to come. What kind of a generation do you want? Do you want a generation that's borrowing food from other countries? We need to think about growing our own food. Kenya should grow and eat the food that Kenyans grow.

Nderitu said as the 2023 Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP 28 nears, it will be of no importance if the meeting does not discuss matters Agro ecology and supporting of farmers to go organic.

The 28th United Nations Climate Change conference will be held from 30 November until 12 December 2023, at the Expo City, Dubai.

Emmanuel Atamba. the founder and CEO of APSID Consulting, a firm that provides consultancy services in food and farming systems in Kenya said the most important conversation is on agroecology and how it is the way to go to transform the food systems

“With our food systems. We have been unable, despite using a lot of resources in the recent past and a lot of conversations and a lot of initiatives, to secure a meal for each and every person in the world today.

He explained that according to FAO, still more than 750 million people globally are affected by food insecurity and this is a clear indicator of failure of agriculture which is basically to ensure that each and every person has access to adequate food at all times.

“Agroecology for me is a paradigm shift where we are looking at how we reinvent our agricultural activities so that we align ourselves with nature rather than working against nature.

Today, Atamba said the country is talking about the cost of fertilizer and despite the government subsidizing and re-subsidizing it is still unaffordable. In agro-ecology we are talking about access to seeds that are productive, that are viable, that are climate resilient.

Matters of going organic he added is about farmers, producers and the whole value chain that is geared towards getting nutritious diverse foods, about changing the way we perceive food and changing the way we perceive agriculture not only as a victim of climate change but a potential solution to the climate crisis”, he said. 

He added that we need to redesign our food production systems to take into account the current context of the climate crisis and the solution is recognizing farmers, producers as managers of landscapes and supporting them.

“Going organic is a timely conversation especially now that all of us are worried whether we are going to have a meal 10 years from now or not. This is the time to ask ourselves why are we worried, why are we scared? Because basically we are standing on shaky ground. We are standing upon a system that is not sustainable, that is not resilient, that cannot see us through the next few generations as humans”, Atamba said.

He said transitioning to agro ecology should not be left to farmers alone as it requires adapting to climate change and this will require resources. Government, he said, needs to ensure that they are supporting the farmers for them to adapt through various investments, advocacy, politically directing the right amount of resources in agro ecology.

“We can accelerate through providing information, providing knowledge, things like what, for example, the G-BIACK Center is doing, of training farmers and exposing farmers to alternative ways of thinking and looking at food systems,” Atamba said.

He however said that it is important that the consumers also be part of the conversation and that they should learn to choose food not because it's cheaper, but because it is better for them, the environment and also of benefit.

Atamba reiterated Nderitu’s sentiments saying that the upcoming COP 28 meeting discussions will be key because they are guiding the global thinking around addressing the climate crisis and food systems or agriculture are not only affected by climate change but are also a potential avenue for solutions and interventions towards the climate crisis.

Courtesy ;KNA