Ukambani enjoys season of plenty

• Rare good rains and farm subsidies unleash dry region’s potential as future food basket

Six-year-old Victor Maundu from Ikutha area of Mutomo District unabashedly marvels at the delights of boiled green maize.

The boy is one of thousands of school children in parts of Ukambani who until recently had never seen a cob of green maize because for the past five years, these areas have not received sufficient rains to produce maize.

When the Sunday Nation visited their farm in Kituti village last week, Victor’s family had turned their compound into a drying ground for fresh maize, a rare spectacle.

On this day boiled green maize was not the main dish, just part of the meal — an indication of an abundant harvest.

Victor’s mother Patricia Mutanu was busy filling two 90-kg bags of green grams for sale at the local market. A kilo is selling for Sh75.

The family’s only grain store crumbled after not being used for several seasons, and now they are racing against time to construct another to ensure their produce does not go to waste.

The jinx of insufficient rains was broken in last planting season, and farmers are now reaping significant harvests.

Famine and drought have in the past given rise to pitiful situations in the region with more than half of its estimated three million residents relying on relief food from the government and donor agencies to survive.

Livestock died in droves, while primary and secondary schools registered high dropout rates. But the long suffering region is in a celebratory mood; many families no longer go hungry as maize and bean crops mature on their farms.

Residents credit the good harvest to the sufficient rainfall received in the region since November last year and a government-supported programme to distribute seeds to farmers.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka spearheaded the programme to distribute the drought-resistant seeds and provide subsidies to farmers. The seeds were donated by the government and donor agencies through the Kenya Red Cross Society.

The Catholic Church, through the dioceses of Machakos and Kitui, embarked on an ambitious soil and water conservation programme across the region that required farmers to dig bench terraces on their farms.

The mandatory one-year food-for-work project sponsored by donors ensured that farm preparations began in earnest 12 months before the onset of rains.

Equity Bank and East African Breweries supported a Sh10 million revolving fund from which farmers could draw credit.

In Kitui Central, Water minister Charity Ngilu, who is also the area MP, set aside money from the Constituency Development Fund to buy mechanised ploughs for land preparation after the prolonged drought wiped out oxen in the area.

Famine-stricken farmers who could not manually cultivate their farms benefited from the subsidised equipment.

Mrs Ngilu helped form committees to regulate use of the ploughs among local farmers with help of the provincial administration.

Food preservation campaigns involving government ministries are already in progress to inform farmers about appropriate storage methods to avoid contamination and pest attacks.

The government is also allowing farmers to store their grain in the National Cereals and Produce Board silos.

Agriculture permanent secretary Romano Kiome announced last week that the ministry would establish more community-based cereal storage facilities.

“An integrated plan involving the public health department, farmers and agricultural officers has been put in place to provide proper storage,” Dr Kiome told journalists during a tour of the region.

The PS said the community storage centres would be installed with moisture meters to ensure compliance with standard storage requirements.

The initiative, which also involves providing free chemicals to farmers who agree to store their produce in NCPB and the community cereal banks, is intended to discourage farmers from selling their grain.

However, drought experts in the region are already warning that celebration over anticipated crop yields may be short-lived because the amount of food harvested will not be sufficient to last the year.

According to statistics compiled by the Arid Lands Resource Management Project, a World Bank-funded programme under the Prime Minister’s Office, the region is just in the recovery phase.

Two weeks ago, the Sunday Nation carried a story about how frustration was setting in among farmers in Mbooni and Machakos whose maize and sorghum crops were being attacked by army worms and American bollworms.

But the worms did not inflict major damage as many were killed by rain water.