Farmers open days

February 16^th, 19^th and 23^rd were learning days for farmers in Tigithi and Ngobit wards, Laikipia County. The African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) in collaboration with The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research organization (KALRO) and the Ministry of Agriculture organized 3 separate field days in 3 villages (Mwakinya, Male and London). A total of 385 people (167 Males, 218 Females) attended. The participants were composed of the farmers from 2 wards, Agro-inputs suppliers, local business communities, School pupils and the extension staffs.  The field days provided the farmers and the agricultural extension agents an opportunity to interact and showcase Conservation agriculture as the alternative  technology  that farmers need to adopt to make their crop production portfolio less vulnerable to climate risk.

The first event was held at Mwakinya  village in Tigithi Ward on 16^th Feb 2016 at Wilfred Kariuki’s farm where the participants observed the  differences  between Conservation Agriculture  and the farmer practice crops , Cover crops (Dolichos, Green grams, Cowpeas, Butterbeans and Pegion peas), CA tools (Jab Planter, Hand ripper and Shallow weeder), drought resistant maize & Sorghum seed varieties (DH02, DH04, H516 and improved red sorghum) and Kitchen gardening aimed at helping  them  achieve food security under a changing climate.

The second field day was held on 19^th Feb 2016 at Ann waweru’s farm in Male Village in Tigithi ward. Total participants were 68. Farmers were impressed by the crop performance using the conservation agriculture practice as compared to the farmers practice. The stakeholders present were Sun transfer, DLight, Equity Bank, Green Life and Muhonia Bee-keepers. Addressing the participants Mrs. Grace Migwi, a CA adopter local farmer, narrated how her health has improved since she started practicing CA. She urged farmers to plant drought resistant cover crops such as Dolichos, butter beans and pigeon peas whose nutritional health value is very high. The ACT programme Officer-Kenya, Mr. Peter Kuria, who was also the chief guest addressed the gathering. In his speech, the programme officer advised the farmers to put into practice the knowledge gained during the event. He also urged the farmers to keep on visiting the host farmer to get more knowledge on CA. 

Various demonstrations were done to educate the farmers on ;

• Use of crop residues and cover crops as soil cover  and for soil fertility improvement.
• Benefits of using drought resistant crop varieties.
• Improved post-harvest processing and storage practices to reduce crop losses.

·         Value addition in beekeeping

·         How to use CA tools

“My farm has kept improving overtime since 2013. This year (2016) I’m expecting to harvest at least 30bags of Maize, which is 5 times higher than what I got last season. I urge my fellow farmers to adopt CA so that they can realize the same benefits”. Said Mrs. Ann Waweru, the Host farmer.

The third field day was held at London village in Ngobit ward at Pauline Muriithi’s farm on 19^th Feb 2016. The event attracted 162 farmers drawn from mwituria, Imenti and kiambirira locations in Ngobit ward. Also in attendance were stakeholders from Nyala dairy, Sun transfer-Kenya, DLight-Kenya and green-life. Speaking during the event, Ngobit ward agricultural officer, Mr. Njuguna called on the farmers to practice CA so as to increase their production level and profitability.  The farmers were able to see the Conservation agriculture plots with an outstanding maize crop relative to their conventional plot with weak and highly stressed maize crop. In addition farmers managed to learn about CA tools, water harvesting techniques, agroforestry. The host farmer, Mrs. Pauline Muriithi was one of the trainers and used her opportunity to share her CA experiences with her fellow farmers. Speaking to the participants, the host farmer urged fellow farmers to take up CA as it involves less labour and give stable yields.

“Comparing what I see on this demonstration with our farms, I can see the crops are very strong and are withstanding the hot weather,” Said Mr. Evanson Mugo, a local farmer. “We can see that it has not been watered but the crops are thriving with very big cobs, we have to try this method in our farms.” Mr. Evanson Mugo added.