Plan to transform smallholder farming into vibrant ventures

Smallholder growers form the bulk of the farming community in Kenya. Yet this segment of farmers face numerous hurdles, key of which are dependence on rain-fed agriculture and lack of vital infrastructure to support their activities. This means reduced production and depressed earnings year in year out.

This situation, however, looks set to change with a series of measures the government is putting in place to turn smallholder growers’ activities into serious enterprises.

Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki says the government is now focusing on irrigation to unlock the potential of small-scale farmers.

“It is the national government’s intention to open up a lot of lands under irrigation. We are now putting greater emphasis on moving farmers from rain-fed to irrigated farming,” notes Mrs Kariuki.

Already, the National Irrigation Authority has pumped Sh443 million into Mirichu Murika scheme in Murang’a County, as part of efforts to transform smallholder subsistence farming into a serious commercial enterprise. The project is focused on irrigated farming of high value horticulture crops.

Daniel Gathura, a smallholder farmer in Murang’a, will now be expanding her farm from half an acre to over five, thanks to the irrigation project.

Mr Gathura, who has been making Sh30,000 from his half acre plot, says he is now poised to increase his earnings to Sh70,000 from the same size of farm. This is because he will be now planting throughout the year due to irrigation. “Previously our income has been low as we only depended on rains, meaning that the only time when we could plant was during the rainy season. However, with irrigated farming, we shall have a whole cycle of crop in the entire year,” says Mr Gathura.

The multi-million Mirichu Murika irrigation scheme will benefit 2,000 farmers by putting an estimated 2,000 acres of land under irrigation.

Presenting this year’s Budget last week, Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani allocated Sh1.4 billion to support small-scale irrigation and value addition and another Sh10 billion for land reclamation.

“The government remains committed to reducing the number of food insecure Kenyans. Towards this end, we will continue to expand irrigation schemes, support large-scale production of staples, increase access to agricultural inputs, implement programmes to support smallholder farmers and promote the use of appropriate farming techniques,” said Mr Yatani.

Mrs Kariuki said the government will train farmers to enable those who have benefited from irrigation to transit into high value crops.

However, market access has been the main challenge that smallholders across the country have been grappling with as most of them fall prey to cartels who offer rock-bottom prices for produce.

“We will find market for the farmers once they have been aggregated in order to ensure that they benefit from their enterprise,” said the CS.

Irrigation has enabled farmers in Murang’a County to turn to high value horticulture crops such as French beans, tomatoes avocado, macadamia and vegetables.

Mr Gathura says this will increase their income and people will be able to feed themselves and be economically independent, cutting reliance on the government safety nets programme.