Locals failto catch fish:

Soaring poverty level in Trans Nzoia County to blame

for failure of fishing farming in the region. pg 35 Farming

Formula to solve Africa’s farming arithmetic

Throughout Africa, small-holder farmers have been operating independently

in production and marketing of their produce even with very rudi-mentary equipment.

They however face many chal-lenges that affect their production and end up losers and living like paupers as their income does not commensurate to their farm input.

But given the latest develop-ment, they may start benefiting from science following the setting up of Bio-Innovate Africa that in-tends to avail new products.

“The Bio-Innovate Africa was formed to create a platform bring-ing together the right partners to deliver innovations tailored for the smallholder farmers and the agro-processing industry in the region,” Dr Seyoum Leta, the Program Manager of Resources Innovations Network for Eastern Africa Development (Bio- Inno-vate) Programme says.

Leta noted that the programme is aimed at availing new products to farmers through bioscience systems and involves scientists, private sector, policy makers and non governmental organisations.

“The Programme is currently supporting nine bioscience in-novation and policy consortia projects bringing together 57 partnering institutions from the six Eastern Africa countries of Bu-rundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda and out-side the region,” he added.

Leta observed that majority of the farmers lack resources due to lack of access to technological support that could significantly improve crop yields including availability of high quality seeds and seedlings that are resist-ance to diseases and can tolerate drought conditions exacerbated by climate change.

Leta noted that the agro-indus-trial sector on the other hand also lacks the technological capacity to manage waste and convert it to usable products like bio-energy.

Bio-Innovate is partnering with three regional initiatives, six policy-oriented institutions, six international organisations, eight overseas universities, 10 na-tional research institutes, 11 train-ing and research universities in

BIO-INNOVATION

Why dairy farmers prefer hawkers over KCC

The People Thursday March 28, 2013

Turn to Page 35

The Kenya Dairy Board recently banned raw milk hawking in a directive that could tilt the ground in favour of licensed processors currently battling for market share with informal traders

By GACHINO THUO

When the Government launched the new Kenya Co-operative Cremaries (KCC) a few years ago, many dairy farmers looked

into a bright future.However, low prices being offered by milk proces-

sors are forcing farmers to seek alternatives to get better deals.

Milk dealers have continued to flourish as farmers opt to sell their milk to them.

A spot check by The People in Nyandarua, Laikipia and Nyeri Counties shows every morning more milk vendors are out on their bicycles, motorcycles, donkey carts and even pick-ups and lorries to deliver the milk

to various outlets from across the region.The survey discovered that at least each milk dealer

serves over 60 customers and sells over 100 litres of milk per day.

A litre of milk goes between Sh26 and Sh32 de-pending with the distance.

Earlier before the revival of KCC which markets about 50 percent of all the milk produced in the coun-try, milk hawkers proved a viable alternative to huge volumes of unmarketable milk.

“It was the only means through which farmers could get their milk sold. While the farm-gate prices were low, at least a farmer was assured of some income from his herd,” says Njoroge Maina, a farmer at Rutara village in

Turn to Page 36

By MWANGI WILLY

Soaring poverty level in Trans Nzoia County is to blame for failure of fishing farming in the region, Trans Nzoia director of agriculture Jam-

lick Njeru Mutegi has says.Through the stimulus fund, the

Government constructed more than 1000 fish ponds in the county at a cost of Sh250,00 benefiting more than 900 farmers and 28 schools in 2011-2012 financial year.

The Ministry of Fisheries gave the beneficiaries 1,000 fingerlings plus fish feeds to last till the harvesting time.

Mutegi says farmers failed to rest-cock the ponds after harvesting kill-ing the project.

“After harvesting, majority of farmers resolved to spend the money earned on other projects thinking the Government would help them restcock the ponds,” says the fisher-ies director.

He says the farmers earned more than Sh3.7 million during that sea-son and only few of them were able to restock the ponds.

“It forced the government to spend more on restocking the ponds and provide more fish feeds to farmers because the initiative was going to be paralysed as farmers had spent on the money gained after selling the produce,” he adds.

“We went back to the farmers this year and gave them 300 fingerlings and also urged them to participate fully because the market demand for fish has never been met”.

Mutegi says poverty has been a ma-jor contributor to the failure of such intitiatives.

The ministry had focused on un-derprivileged residents to uplift their livelihoods with such a project but it has suffered major setbacks as resi-dents are too impatient .

“Many of them fed of the fish while others sell them at a throw away price,” he says.

Poor Trans Nzoia residents fail to taste fish profits

eastern Africa, 21 private and market players. It supports multi-disciplinary biosciences and

product oriented innovations with the aim of in-itiating, intensifying and disseminating innova-tions for sustainable utilisation, transformation and integration of the region’s bio-resources for economic growth and development.

Leta noted that the activities focus on ap-plying bio-resources innovations to support sustainable growth and transformation of the agricultural and environmental sub-sectors, from primary production to value addition.

“The programme is providing a novel re-gional, broad-based biosciences innovations platform that links science and technology to the market to address priority regional devel-opment challenges,” he added.

The Programme is mobilising available sci-ence and research findings in the region that are then channeled to increase crop productiv-

ity and adaptation to climate change; manage-ment of agro- industrial wastes for environmen-tal sustainability and promotion of traditional crops through value addition.

The programme is being implemented cli-mate change adaptability, waste water, inno-vation incubation and bio-resource innovation policy.

Climate change“We plan to produce crops that are resilient to climate change such as sorghum, finger millet, beans and potatoes,” he added. Others will be to adopt sustainable utilisation of agro- indus-trial wastes through integration of bio-energy and mushroom production and also integrate waste treatment and climate change mitigation in Eastern Africa.

In Kenya the programme has led to breeding of beans for nutritional quality, drought toler-

ance and productivity. Leta said that five new beans family were

outstanding for vigor, drought tolerance and yield potential and are due for validation at the National Performance Trials for formal release.

“The seeds will be introduced and dissemi-nated to farmers given that they have the natu-ral ability to concentrate high iron and zinc to ensure regular access, low cost, sustainable and cheap top develop,” he added.

It will help contribute to reduction in micronu-trient malnutrition in sub Saharan Africa which affects more than many people worldwide. “The seeds will immediately be disseminated to farmers with the help of the 16 partners to all parts of the country and also to neighboring countries,” he revealed.

Bio-innovate are set to deliver biosciences innovations to the marketplace where farmers could access the products.

How science could help tired farmers reclaim barren lands

AQUACULTURE 35FArmingThe People,march 28, 2013

Continued From Page 21

Bio-resources innovations are being applied to support sustainable growth and transformation of the agricultural sector.

They face many challenges that affect their production and end up living like paupers as their income is not commensurate with the farm input