Amiran teams up with banks to promote irrigation farming
A farmer inspects his vegetable grown under irrigation using kits from Amiran Kenya Limited. PHOTO | COURTESY |
What you need to know:
- Dubbed Inua Maisha na Drip, the campaign is targeting farmers from far flung areas with river and well water. The drip irrigation kits that farmers can acquire through this partnership go for between Sh20,000 and Sh350,000.
- Unlike other kinds of irrigation, the drip method helps farmers to conserve water. It saves up to 70 per cent of water when compared to other irrigation methods like flood.
Irrigation kit maker Amiran-Kenya has partnered with financial institutions to help farmers get loans to buy and install kits on their farms.
The move aims at empowering farmers to carry out irrigation agriculture that is free from the vagaries of weather— thereby enabling them earn more.
Amiran Kenya Communications Officer Flora Nanjala Friday said the company would be linking farmers to financing institutions for funding.
Dubbed Inua Maisha na Drip, the campaign is targeting farmers from far flung areas with river and well water. The drip irrigation kits that farmers can acquire through this partnership go for between Sh20,000 and Sh350,000.
Financial institutions in this partnership include Chase Bank, Rafiki DTM, Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Family Bank and K-Rep Bank.
LOAN REPAYMENT
Nanjala said successful applicants would be given enough time to repay their loans— until their crops mature, enabling them reap big in the deal.
“Ours is to link farmers with the financiers and provide them with the equipment. Theirs is to implement farming and ensure they repay the loans,” she said.
The drip kit, according to Nanjala, contains a gravity-fed drip irrigation system and accessories like filters and valves. It also includes a water tank, top quality seeds, fertilisers, agro-chemicals, a sprayer and an agro-support package.
Unlike other kinds of irrigation, the drip method helps farmers to conserve water. It saves up to 70 per cent of water when compared to other irrigation methods like flood.
“The lending programmes are helping to create more opportunities for farmers at all levels, allowing them to experience easy-to-use technology,” said Nanjala
Amiran will install the kits and provide crop growing guidelines, training and agro-support to farmers.
Meanwhile, four Seeds of Gold readers stand the chance to win a Drip Irrigation Foundation Kit in a new competition dubbed Inua Maisha Drip.
The competition, which is a partnership between Seeds of Gold and Amiran- Kenya, aims at rewarding our readers and encouraging them to adopt modern-day farming methods.
The readers are expected to answer a question that will be published every Saturday for the next four weeks starting next Saturday through a Seeds of Gold and Amiran Twitter handle. The competition will be supervised by experts from Seeds of Gold and Amiran-Kenya. The participant with highest retweets will emerge the week’s winner.
Afterwards, Nation Media Group and Amiran-Kenya team will award all the four winners at a venue to be announced later.
The winners will receive a kit which includes Drip Irrigation Systems, chemicals, fertilizers and drawing guides. They will also receive hybrid seeds of their crops of choice.
