Farmers in Busia County have been urged to adopt soil testing in order to understand the kind of crops to plant and fertilizer to use on their farms in order to increase food Production.
Speaking to Kenya News Agency at KALRO Alupe, Maddo Onyango, a soil analyst, said the county has the potential to produce abundant food but soil acidity has caused the current decline in food production in the areas.
“We have reached about 30% of farmers for soil analysis in the county and farmers are experiencing low food production because of poor soil texture and with high acidity as a result of over use of acidifying fertilizers,” he said.
He urged farmers to have their soil tested so as to understand the characteristics of their soil.
Onyango stated that Busia County can feed a large population in the country since farmers can farm for three seasons in a year.
“The production of crops like beans can be done in three phases in one year due to the good weather patterns in the county. We are working on soil management practices that will help to increase the food production if we can reach many farmers in the county,” he asserted.
He pointed out that Butula Sub County has the best soil in the county despite high level of acidity being witnessed.
“The soil in Butula, Bunyala and Teso South sub counties remains the best in the county. In Bunyala the pH is high making the acidity to be low. In Teso South, soil nutrients are not badly off but the acidity is high. Butula remains to be the best soil according to the analysis that we have done” he explained.
In efforts to deal with the soil acidity, the analyst said that they have been recommending lime application to reduce the acidity level in the soil after doing the analysis.
“The application of lime is done during the dry season. The type of lime recommended depends on the outcome of the laboratory soil analysis. We also recommend the type of fertilizer to be used according to the nutrients level in the soil as this only happens after we have done soil testing to understand the components of that soil” he said.
According to Onyango, many crops can do well in the county only if its fertility is corrected.
“The crops which can do better now are Cassava, Simsim and soya beans because of their tolerance to poor pH and low nutrient level. The rest of the crops can do well only after the soil condition and fertility has been corrected. Groundnuts and peanuts can do well in the soil in Busia County” he added.
The analyst said they are currently analyzing soil samples drawn from different parts of the county to come up with the soil map of Busia County.
“We are currently working on 1000 samples drawn from all sub counties in the county. We took about 30 samples from each ward and this will help us to come up with a soil map of Busia County that will even guide for the future on how the soil components look in Busia.” he said.
KALRO Alupe Centre Director, Patrick Mudavadi urged the National and County government to facilitate the collection of samples from many farmers in the county.
“We are asking the county and national government to help us by facilitating the sample collection drive of about 500 samples from farmers from each sub county. The samples can give us a clear picture of the soil component in the county”, he explained.
By Rodgers Omondi
