Drought-hit Kenyans ‘leave soil alone’ to reap higher yields – and profit

KIRIWU, Kenya – With a machete in hand and seeds in a bag, Simba Njagi meticulously digs a small hole in the dirt between grown cowpeas, places a maize seed in, closes the hole and moves on to the next one.

Unlike his neighbours, he does not plough his seven-acre piece of land.

“If you do not disturb the soil, it will retain water even if there is minimal rain,” he explained from his farm in Kiriwu village, in Kenya’s Tharaka-Nithi county. “And covering the soil helps it preserve moisture.”

Farmers in this county, like many parts of Kenya, are grappling with longer and more intense droughts, which threaten their crops and livelihoods. To remedy this, an increasing number are adopting a practice known as conservation agriculture or zero tillage, whereby land is left unploughed and seeds are planted in undisturbed soil.

Njagi and others used to mostly plant maize, a staple food in Kenya, but have seen their yields decline in past years to due to insufficient rainfall.

With support from a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) project in three arid and semi-arid Kenyan counties, over 1,000 farmers started planting drought-resistant crops like sorghum and adopting climate-smart farming practices like conservation agriculture.

Ambrose Ngetich, the FAO’s programme officer in Tharaka-Nithi, said farmers’ actions had led to a 30-50 percent increase in yields since 2015.

Njagi, who now grows maize, sorghum, cowpeas, and pigeon peas in rotation has seen his yield more than double over that period of time.

“I now harvest about seven bags of sorghum per acre, compared to only two before,” he said.

READY MARKETS

In addition to changing their farming practices, the project has advised farmers to form a group – made up of Njagi and 40 other farmers – to combine their sorghum produce and bargain for better prices.  The FAO also facilitated their access to ready markets like East African Breweries Limited, a Kenyan beverage business.  

A kilo of sorghum from the group now sells for about a quarter more than what it used to – roughly 30 shillings ($0.30) – thanks to the group’s improved bargaining position.

Martha Mwenda, another farmer, can now pay her children’s school fees thanks to higher sorghum prices.

“Our last harvest was good and after we put all of the members’ sorghum together, we had 14 tonnes which we sold to Tegemeo Enterprises for 420,000 shillings, ($4,200),” she said.

Mary’s share of 32,000 shillings ($308) was four times what she used to earn.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Apart from boosting yields, zero tillage can also help curb climate change, say experts. According to Barrack Okoba, a climate-smart agriculture expert, “minimum tillage ensures there is limited disturbance of the soil which would otherwise release carbon into the air.”

“This is in contrast to conventional tillage or ploughing which releases carbon and, through tractors, consumes a significant amount of fossil fuels – leading to high levels of carbon and potential costs of repair and maintenance for machinery.”

Minimum tillage alone, however, will not lead to mitigation of climate change, says Richard Munang, regional climate change coordinator for the U.N. Environment Programme.

“While adaptation techniques based on ecosystems like minimum tillage are effective and help enhance food security, they need to be adopted by more farmers to achieve long term viability.”

“They should be integrated with other activities like solar-powered micro-irrigation to increase the productivity of  agriculture and maximise incomes.”