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.