With the onset of short rains in Murang’a, demand for tree seedlings has gone up as scores of residents embrace the government’s directive on tree planting.
A spot check by KNA revealed some tree nursery attendants have sold the stock of seedlings they have been nurturing for a period of time.
On October 15, many parts of Murang’a County experienced rainfall, with locals taking the opportunity to plant trees on their farms.
One of the local tree nursery attendants, John Githinji, said that since last week, demand for seedlings has gone up, and they may fail to supply the seedlings needed by the locals.
“We have witnessed increased demand for seedlings. The majority of locals are coming for the seedlings, even from other counties. The high demand is especially for fruit seedlings, especially grafted avocado, macadamia, and pawpaw, among others,” he explained.
Githinji revealed that for the last few years, they have faced the challenge of growing seedlings due to the ban on polythene papers.
“We can say there is a shortage of seedlings, and this can be attributed to lack of polythene papers to transfer to and grow the seedlings from nurseries. Currently, we have been using empty cement bags and worn-out sacks to plant seedlings,” he added.
Githinji called the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to advise on alternative bags to be used in growing seedlings, saying lack of proper bags was leading to shortage of seedlings.
The demand for seedlings comes at a time when the government is championing the planting of more than 10 million trees within a span of five years.
Speaking elsewhere, Murang’a County Ecosystem Conservator Lucy Njoroge urged Murang’a residents to seek advice from the Kenya Forest Service on types of trees to plant on their farms.
Njoroge noted that many seedlings failed to reach maturity since they don’t adapt to the environment they were planted in.
“Officers of KFS are available to provide professional information about the planting of trees, an exercise we call site matching. This means trees are matched to the conditions of the area where they are supposed to be planted. I urge locals to seek these services from our offices. The goal here is to plant and nurture the trees to maturity,” she added.
Njoroge revealed that KFS is working to increase tree cover in Murang’a County to 30 per cent by the end of the year.
“We are taking advantage of these rains to increase tree and forest cover in the county. Tree cover currently stands at 27 per cent while forest cover is at 16.68 per cent,” she added.
By Bernard Munyao and Martin Macharia
