George Mburu cultivates ideas for growth in the field of agriculture
By Agnes Mbithi
Over 80% of Kenya’s population relies on agriculture for food and livelihood. Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising of livestock. This includes the process of working on the ground, planting of seeds and growing edible plants in order to get food for people to use and sell . Over the years, the growth of agriculture has greatly contributed to civilization. Most youth in Kenya shun agriculture because they wrongly perceive it as an occupation for the aged . Indeed, the average of farmers in Kenya is sixty years with majority of them residing in the rural and far flung areas. The irony of this is that with an ever growing population, Kenya needs more food .
Despite that challenge, agriculture remains a lucrative business. Farmers have nowadays embraced modern techniques as they seek to meet the high demand for food in the market, especially due to the rural-urban migration. The modern farmer is able to plant high yielding crops, irrigate his farm as opposed to relying solely on rain , besides fetching profitable market for his produce.
Agribusiness
Today, due to advancement in technology, most farmers have embraced smart farming. They are managing their farms using modern Information and communication technologies to increase the quantity and quality of products while optimizing the human labour required. Through science, farmers have also been able to come up with techniques which have enabled them to intensify farming. George Mburu, a resident of Kinoo in Kiambu County has embraced the smart farming technique. He has done farming for the last five years and he started his journey in 2015 right after his graduation. Having done an agriculture course, he ventured into fruit farming. “I started with passion fruit, tree tomato, goose berry, strawberry and some other fruits and we used to sell them in offices in Nairobi and Industrial area to individual clients and that was my target at that time,” Mburu says. According to him, the idea of farming first came up when he was given an ancestral piece of land. This gave him an opportunity to put his skills as an agronomist into practice instead of looking for the elusive formal jobs.
“Currently, I do installation of multi-storey gardens like you have seen here, corn gardens, drip farming installation, greenhouse farming and basically what I usually do is help farmers achieve their goals,” he states. He identified the gap in the market owing to the fact that some of the main food stuffs like crops and onions are usually imported from other countries. He therefore decided to change this narrative by using some science skills to come up with the multi-storey garden, drip farming and also the construction of greenhouses based on the farmers’ needs. “Basically in this type of farming, we grow spinach, kales, cull kales, spider plants, beetroot, and sometimes tomatoes,” he further says. According to him, they also conduct market research to assess the vegetables and fruits that are in demand so that they can produce goods that are fast moving in the market. The reason as to why they plant kales in large numbers is that it is consumed heavily by many households and therefore its demand is high.
A multi-storey garden is a vertical farming method. Limited space is used to create gardens stacked on each other. It is a farming technology that aims at producing more vegetables and fruits, so as to meet the rising need for food in the country, while also utilizing spaces such as home backyards, roof tops among other places. The most suitable plants to grow in such kind of a system include: kales, spinach, capsicum, eggplants, coriander, carrot, garlic and strawberries. A farmer can choose to have a multi-storey farming system either out in the open, or in a greenhouse or shade house. Drip irrigation farming method involves the placing of tubes with emitters on the ground alongside with the plants. The emitters usually drip water into the soil at the roots. This is usually done because moisture levels need to be kept at an optimal range in order to enhance plant productivity and quality. In addition, this kind of a setup is beneficial since it prevents diseases by minimizing water contact with leaves, stems and fruits. It also allows the rows between the plants to remain dry thus improving access and also reducing weed growth . Lastly, it reduces leaching of water and nutrients below the roots. Green house farming on the other hand is a practice of developing vegetables under a covered design, regularly producing a transparent material. The main motivation behind greenhouse farming is to give ideal developing conditions and shield crops from adverse weather conditions and pests. It is suitable for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits and transplants.
Requirements
According to Mburu, for one to be able to set up a multi-storey garden or a greenhouse farm, first, he has to have space. “One garden usually has a circumference of five meters – a small space that you can start with,” says Mburu. Secondly, you need good soil . The soil should be deep, fertile and well-drained, with a pH range of 5.5 to 7.0. The most preferred type is the red soil. “In a situation where red soil is not accessible, we usually use our skill and navigate around the black cotton soil and still get the same results,” he says. It is advisable to use red soil because it has better drainage capacity compared to other soils. It is porous, fine grained, fertile in nature and can sustain manure for a long period of time. In multi-layer garden, you can put fertile topsoil in sacks or containers to help improve the soil quality and make it more suitable for farming. Thirdly, one requires clean water for irrigation. Salty water is not advisable for farming owing to the fact that high levels of salt ions, such as chloride and sodium can be toxic for plants. The problems associated with salinity affect the plant growth and sometimes cause considerable loss in yield. Lastly, one requires capital for installation, buying seeds , manure and fertilizers among other requirements .
According to Mburu, the cost of installation varies depending on the location of the farm. His transportation cost is also included and therefore the nearby farmers are advantaged. The cost also varies in regards to the number of stacks to be installed. In a case where a farmer requires two to three stacks, he will pay a lesser amount of money compared to a farmer who requires over a hundred stacks to be installed. “We usually charge a minimum of one thousand three hundred shillings for installation,” avers Mburu. Therefore it is not expensive to start that kind of farming set up. For someone with no farm and a limited space then a multi-storey garden is ideal.
Challenges
According to him, the hardest part of his agribusiness was when he was doing passion fruit and tomato farming. They were constantly attacked by pests and diseases. “Some of the diseases that affect these plants are viral infections and like in human beings, you cannot cure a viral infection , it is managed ,” says Mburu. In addition, some diseases are prone to the multi-storey garden, the drip farming and also the greenhouse farming. The most common one is the brown spot which mainly affects tomatoes, spinach and kales. To treat such diseases, you need to use fungicides in order to eliminate the problem. You can also isolate the plant from the rest , besides cutting off the affected leaves. Another challenge in his farm is that his plants are invaded by a number of pests mainly the red spider mite and aphids. “The other challenge is the issue of birds which previously used to eat bees and now that we have a lot of chemicals in farms we don’t have bees and so they eat spinach among other plants,” he says. Additionally, the issue of market fluctuation according to Mburu is also a challenge. When there is a surplus, prices go down and vice versa. The low demand of the surplus produce also leads to a lot of waste since they are perishable
Achievements
One of the greatest achievements according to Mburu is being able to feed the local community. “The best thing about farming, is that you can’t compare it with any other kind of work because you are close to nature and that is very fulfilling, “ he says adding that it feels good to feed the hungry.
According to Mburu , prospective farmers should first of all visit other farms and also consult existing farmers so that they can learn the practical aspect of farming. Due to the dynamism in agribusiness, he is always on his toes . “ If I compare farming in 2015 when I graduated to the present day, I notice a lot of new developments ,” he avers. Nowadays people do marketing the digital way. Customers are able to make orders online , unlike the olden days when farmers used to take their produce to the market.
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