Conservation Agriculture in Ukumbani

MCC is involved in a 5 year project promoting conservation agriculture in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.  This is just getting geared up, and one of the early steps is to do an Environmental Impact Analysis to assess the potential negative or positive environmental effects of the project.  These effects include both the natural environment, and the social environment.  I accompanied several consultants for the week in Machakos and Kitui as they collected information for this EIA.

Julian Mutisa, a farmer near Muumandu, Machakos.  Julian was enthusiastic about explaining his system of using conservation agriculture.

Beatrice, Julian's wife, also was proud to talk about their farm.  Notice the post in the background has termites.  One of the three central tenets of conservation agriculture ("CA") is to leave residue (like the stalks from corn plants) on the fields in order to add organic matter, and to retain moisture.  Termites are a big problem for this in Ukumbani - many farmers said that the residues disappear quickly as termites eat them rapidly.

Arrow root growing in a zai pit.  Arrow root is a popular dish in Kenya, it grows a starchy tuber (sort of like cassava).  Zai pits originated in West Africa, farmers dig out pits in the field and then fill them with manure, organic matter and soil.  In this case, Julian had a plastic liner to help retain moisture in the dry periods.  Arrow root fetches a good price in the market, so it provides them income in addition to food for their family.

Ukambani is now heavily terraced.  This is relatively recent, several decades ago this did not have terraces and so was much more susceptible to erosion.  Some aspects of the environment (in this case soil erosion) have improved in Ukambani despite increases in population.  A classic analysis of this was written in the mid-1990s called "More people, less erosion", essentially arguing that increased population pressure does not mean the environment needs to degrade.  Whether that notion can be generalized is somewhat controversial, but Ukumbani clearly is an interesting case study in thinking about those issues.

Looking west from Soloman Mutisia's farm, which is on the edge of the hills in this region.  Savanna rangeland is visible to the horizon.

Soloman runs farm test plots under the direction of the Africa Conservation Tillage Network, another organization promoting CA.  They have some 16 "mother trials" in which farmers have 6 plots with combinations of conventional/conservation ag, fertilizer or no fertilizer, and residue retention or residue removal.  The plots are intended as demonstrations for other farmers; presumably as they see the effects of the practices, it encourages them to also try it.   

In the foreground maize is grown with CA, in the background with conventional ag.  In this particular case, the difference seemed obvious; maize plants with CA looked larger and healthier.

In the foreground is maize grown with CA, including leaving residues on the field.  Aside from the challenge with termites, there is a big challenge with having enough residue to apply.  Residue such as corn stalks are typically used as animal fodder, so leaving them on the field means they have less fodder for animals.  Animals are also important because manure is collected and composted, then used as fertilizer.  So typically the amount of residue on fields even under CA is limited. 

 Soils in the region are fairly sandy and often not of high fertility.  Here, even with CA and residues, the maize is doing poorly without fertilizer.

Another view of terracing in the region.  Here mango trees are seen interspersed in the fields.  Planting fruit trees (and other trees) is promoted with CA projects.  Mangoes can provide an important source of income for farmers.

Visiting farms has an established protocol.  Formal introductions are needed at each stop, and at the end of a meeting, representatives from each group need to make short speeches of appreciation for the visit.  Also, it is important to visit family members on the farm.  Here, we visit the grandmother of one of the farmers, who was weaving a basket in the shade.

Ruth, a farmer who has been practicing CA for many years, explains her system of farming.  She was obviously one of the most successful CA farmers in the region, with beautiful farm showing a diversity of crops.  The field here has beans.  Notice the lack of weeds.  In some areas, weeds are a major problem, especially this year with more rains.  CA is not the same as organic farming, and so often promotes the use of herbicides to control weeds.  Ruth used herbicides, although this is somewhat unusual for the region.  She has a higher income due to her successful farm, and so can afford the herbicides whereas other farmers often cannot.  Many farmers in Ukumbani (especially Kitui) are adverse to using either pesticides or fertilizers - they believe they are both "chemicals" and will destroy the soil or harm people.  This cultural belief seems to have developed as up until recently there was primarily shifting cultivation and pesticides and fertilizers were less necessary.  So the potential for increased herbicide use was one of the potential environmental impacts of CA.  

Ruth shows a mango tree laden with fruit.  Varieties of mango were grafted onto a native mango tree here; this one is particularly successful.

Intercropping (and crop rotations) are encouraged in CA.  Here beans (cow peas, maybe?) are intercropped with millet.  Millet is drought tolerant, so is particularly appropriate for the region.  CA relies on rainfed agriculture, rather than encouraging irrigation, so millet, sorghum, green grams (split peas) are promoted, along with other drought tolerant crops.

Farm implements are key to doing CA.  Ruth had both a jab planter (background), and a ripper (the plough-looking device).  A ripper cuts a narrow furrow in the soil to allow planting of crops.  This allows minimal soil disturbance (essentially no-till) which is also a tenet of CA.  The jab planter automatically dispenses both seed and fertilizer and defined spaces along a row.  A scraper is also visible, used to weed between rows.  These implements are often shared by farmer groups, as at $20-60 per implement, they are too expensive for most farmers to purchase themselves.

Back at the UDO offices, a partner who will be implementing CA, we look at their demonstration garden.  Here there is a sack used as a vertical garden for vegetable growing.  I want to try this when we get back to Virginia!

Off in Kitui, the county adjacent to Machakos, we meet with "Bwana" (mister, gentleman) Kisanga Murio to tour his CA plot.  Here, maize, squash, papaya and pilipili (hot pepper) are grown together.  Kisanga tried CA because he saw a picture of a CA farm on a calender photo, and decided it looked like a good idea.  Most CA farmers we visited did report higher yields, sometimes up to 5x what they had grown.

Tomatoes grown with maize, here with a fair amount of residue.  Cover crops are also used.  In this region they also collected debris from adjacent forest land.  

This CA project has resource staff to work with partners and farmers.  John Mbae (in the red striped shirt) is the new technical specialist for Kenya, here he explains to Kisanga how bacterial disease has killed one of the pilipili plants.  We got mixed responses about whether CA increases or decreases diseases and pests, in this region mostly people said it decreased them.

Here we have a lively discussion about why maize in one are of the farm is not looking as good.  This was where the farmer (the woman in the blue dress to left) had put some mulch, so she believed the mulch caused problems and she didn't want to do that again.  Others like the SASOL staff talked to her about how this area was near a tree (evident by the shade), which could be the cause of reduced maize growth in that area.  CA includes trial and error by the farmers.

Women (and 2 men) from the group "Imani" (meaning "work together"?) talk with us about their experiences.  Here we had one of several lively discussions about gender.  The women here do the work in the CA plots, as is often the case.  Several noted that their husbands thought they were wasting their time with CA, and didn't want to help because of the amount work.  We got different answers to the question of whether CA required more or less work than conventional ag.  Tilling isn't needed, so that saves labor, but weeding can take a lot of effort.  If zai pits are used, that also takes a good amount of labor.  Sometimes farmers hire labor, but labor is scarce as most young men "just want to drive motorcycle and chew miraa"  (miraa is a stimulant plant grown in Kenya and traditionally sold in Somalia).  So maybe the women here look a bit tired because they've been working very hard.