Nakuru County Government has rolled out a campaign to encourage farmers to shift to organic agricultural system which focuses on achieving maximum yields, and simultaneously enhance biodiversity and sustains soil fertility.
According to the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Leonard Bor, Kenya needs an urgent and comprehensive transfer to agroecology across the entire food system with particular emphasis on the integration of agroecology in the policies, strategies and action plans.
While noting that going organic is the most sustainable way of farming because it entails improving the soils using the resources that the farmer has, Mr Bor added that the crops produced by organic fertilisers are healthy for human and animal consumption, and user friendly to the ecosystem.
The CECM made the remarks during a meeting with officials of Cereal Growers Association (CGA) and Farm to Market Association (FTMA) that explored ways to integrate the youth into agriculture using digital marketing platforms.
“Going organic will address issues revolving around climate change that negatively impact agriculture and lead to production of chemical-free foods. Organic manure increases soil fertility and productivity level. It also adds soil organic matter, improves soil structure and preserves essential nutrients required for crop growth. This farming method helps in maintaining soil fertility and is resilient to climate change,” Mr Bor said.
He explained that going organic means using what is called a closed loop system where all the food produced can be recycled, meaning by products and waste can revert to the soil as manure.
Bor added that through feeding of livestock the farmers can also produce manure by converting the family manure into “Boma composting.
Boma compost, the CECM elaborated, is manure that has more carbon materials or carbon resources than nitrogen so a farmer doesn’t need to pump in a lot of nitrogen in the soil.
Mr Bor however indicated that going organic does not happen overnight as it takes about six years to fully transition from conventional to organic farming.
“It is a process which entails reducing to stopping the use of conventional inputs and adopting the organics. One will have to use a lot of organic matter, pump it into the soil as they reduce chemical fertilisers,” said Bor.
Kenyan soils, he said, are acidic and that is why food production has been declining.
“I am not saying that soil that has higher acidity levels is totally bad because there are some crops that like that kind of soil, but majority of crops do not like 4.0 pH and below acidic levels thus reviving the soils is going organic,” he said.
According to Mr Bor, any cured manure has the elements that are needed by the plant, because one feeds the soil and the soil feeds the plant as opposed to applying chemical fertilisers in the soil which feeds the plant and destroys the soil.
He quoted data from FAO, which indicates that more than 750 million people globally are affected by food insecurity, a clear indicator of failure of agriculture.
“Agroecology for me is a paradigm shift where we are looking at how to reinvent our agricultural activities so that we align ourselves with nature rather than working against it,” Bor said.
He added: “Today, the country is talking about the cost of fertiliser and despite the government subsidising and re-subsidising, it is still not affordable. In agroecology we are talking about access to seeds that are productive, that are viable, that are climate resilient.”
Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors in the country, generating over 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a major source of employment in both the formal and informal sectors in Kenya.
However, the raging debate on the use of inorganic and organic fertilisers has been one of the greatest contentious talks and a cause of concern among Kenyan farmers.
The large-scale farmers have continued to prefer the use of inorganic fertilisers, while their compatriots, the small-scale farmers, have heavily relied on organic fertilisers.
Even though the preference of usage between inorganic and organic fertilisers among small and large-scale farmers is wide, each has its own merits and limitations.
Large-scale farmers have always quoted the ‘labour intensive’ as one of the major reasons for inorganic fertiliser usage.
However, according to Mr Bor the labour-intensive term used by large-scale farmers, is a scapegoat for the non-commitment to conserving the environment.
He noted that the use of inorganic fertiliser leads to quick yields, but farmers always focus on the advantage, forgetting that it increases the acidity of the soil, reduces soil fertility, and leads to the consumption of harmful chemicals by human beings.
The CECM stated that the usage of organic fertiliser can be by both large and small-scale farmers.
He affirmed that although the usage of organic fertiliser has a slower rate of crop maturity, the benefits are enormous.
Mr Bor acknowledged that organic fertiliser helps to treat soil fertility by rectifying soil pH and soil molecular structures.
By Anne Mwale and Meggy Njoki
