If only we had analysed our soils...

Philip Butala in his greenhouse in Vihiga. PHOTO | EVERLINE OKEWO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The complete kit came with a 600 litre water tank, drip irrigation lines, 500 tomato seedlings, pesticides, installation fee and transport.
  • The farmer says most farms in the county are infected with bacterial wilt, which poses a major challenge to the growing of capsicum, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and vegetables.
  • Amos Amenya, a senior agronomist at Lake Basin Development Authority, says burning of soil helps clear off the pathogens, but one should start with checking for pathogens.

A ride on the murram road from Majengo market to Kilindili village in Vihiga County is an exciting experience on a motorbike.

The road is smooth, giving one a feeling that it is tarmacked - one of the benefits of devolution.

My ride ends at Friends Church Kilindili, from where I walk to the home of farmer Philip Butala.

Butala is smarting from losses after he burnt his fingers growing crops in a greenhouse. The imposing structure, now abandoned, occupies 15 by 8m portion of his two acres.

“I lost my entire tomato crop that was at flowering stage in 2012. It was my second season after I had used Sh161,000 from a loan and my savings.”

The complete kit came with a 600 litre water tank, drip irrigation lines, 500 tomato seedlings, pesticides, installation fee and transport.

“I was also offered a one-day training by Amiran Kenya Limited, Nairobi from where I bought the greenhouse kit. They also gave me technical assistance where two of its technicians from Nairobi visited my farm to assemble the kits.”

SITE SELECTION
Among the skills he acquired were greenhouse site selection, pests and disease control, soil fumigation and seedlings selection.

On site selection, he was advised to erect the greenhouse away from wind direction to avoid structural damage.

Butala planted 500 seedlings of Corazon-F1 tomato variety in the greenhouse. While the germination rate was not 100 per cent, 300 seedlings grown in bags reached the fruiting stage. The farmer recounts that his first season in 2011 was encouraging.

“I got about 20 crates of tomatoes, which I sold to hotels and traders in the region making Sh80,000.”

Encouraged, Butala bought a set of 500 tomato seedlings of the Corazon variety during the second season at Sh4,200.

“All went well in the nursery. The seeds germinated after a week and I transplanted them. But once again when they reached the fruiting stage, some started wilting.”

He uprooted the plants and tried another variety following advice from a fellow farmer.

“I bought the first batch, planted the seeds in a nursery but they did not do well. I transplanted a few and was forced to buy another set of 500 at Sh3,000 to fill the gap.”

Similarly, the new crop did not do well. He sought advice from an extension officer who advised him to uproot all the affected stems because they had been attacked by bacterial wilt.

Stung by the loss, it is about two years since Butala took a break from greenhouse farming.

BIG MISTAKE

“I know the biggest mistake I did was to fail to take my soil in a lab for culture test, which would have informed me that it is infested with bacterial wilt pathogens.”

John Muhando, Butala’s neighbour, is another farmer who has not had good experience with greenhouses.

“I grew tomatoes for two seasons in the greenhouse and failed terribly in the second. It is over a year since I grew anything in it. I abandoned the project after termites and butterflies invaded my plants and destroyed them.”

The farmer says most farms in the county are infected with bacterial wilt, which poses a major challenge to the growing of capsicum, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and vegetables.

The harvest was good in the first season as he was able to make profit and recover the money he spent on buying the greenhouse.

“I made sales of Sh150,000 from my first harvest of about 50 crates in 2013. The following year I had expected more but I did not harvest anything despite spending a lot of money on management of the greenhouse.”

The farmers note they engaged in some bad agronomic practices that led to the losses.

“One of my other biggest mistakes was that I was using piped water for farming. I have learned that persistent use of chemicals such as chlorine, which is in treated water, is harmful to crops,” says Butala, who was advised to use rainwater.

SKIPPED WATERING CROP

Muhando, who also did not analyse his soil for pathogens, on the other hand, says scarcity of the commodity pushed him to skip watering the crops.

“Greenhouse crops should be irrigated in the morning and evening daily. I sometimes skipped to save on water thinking that the greenhouse cover would help.”

Another mistake he made was to excessively use pesticides when termites invaded the greenhouse, which affected his crop.

Butala has now learnt how to prevent bacterial wilt, whose symptoms in tomato crop include leaves wilting from the top, discolouration and milky substance oozing from the stem of the plant.

“The contaminated greenhouse soil should be burnt to kill the micro-organisms. And it should not be mixed with uninfected new soil,” he says.

Tomatoes mature after three months and can be harvested for nine consecutive times.

“I will go back to tomatoes because of their high demand. Tomatoes grown in greenhouses have a longer shelf-life and fetch high prices. I am now wiser,” says Butala.

Amos Amenya, a senior agronomist at Lake Basin Development Authority, says burning of soil helps clear off the pathogens, but one should start with checking for pathogens.

“Bacterial wilt is one of the pathogens that affects crops like tomatoes, vegetables, Irish potatoes and capsicum. A farmer should maintain hygiene in the greenhouse to avoid multiplication of pathogens,” he notes, adding that one should transport affected soil to a disease-free place before he starts burning it.

He adds that crop rotation in greenhouse helps to curb bacterial wilt.

“It is true that piped water is not recommended for greenhouse farming because it has chemicals. The water is already treated with chlorine which has adverse effects on the crops.”