Why I exchanged my killer gun for farming

Dawn to dusk surveillance: A woman keeps vigil on a watch tower to keep away birds at her sorghum farm in Natiira, Turkana County on June 07, 2015. During good seasons, farmers harvest 9 bags of sorghum and during bad seasons, only one bag from an acre. JARED NYATAYA |

What you need to know:

  • Patches of maize plants jostle for space with the sorghum, sukuma wiki, onions and lemon trees to provide a scenery similar to a farm in the Mt Kenya highlands.
  • “The going was not easy after venturing into agriculture at first, a field that I had little knowledge about. At one point I thought of giving up but I had no other alternative source to sustain my family,” Natieng told Seeds of Gold as he checked if the crop is ready for harvest for the market in Lodwar and other parts of the vast and arid county.
  • The impressive results have motivated the mother of six to try the more sophisticated drip irrigation that is more economical and attracts better returns.

After coursing through the hundreds of kilometres of the bumpy and rugged road in the hot, dusty and desolate Turkana, an oasis of green springs up.

The sight of six-foot tall sorghum that greets approaching visitors from a distance looks like a misplaced, well-maintained football pitch in the middle of a desert.

The crop is almost ready to be harvested, with yellow peduncles piercing through the green stalks below in defiance of the notion that nothing green can be found in Kenya’s dry north.

Patches of maize plants jostle for space with the sorghum, sukuma wiki, onions and lemon trees to provide a scenery similar to a farm in the Mt Kenya highlands.

We meet Mr Zablon Natieng, who at 5 feet, is jostling to stand out on his lush farm strewn with sorghum, finger millet and maize plants. The farm is located at Natiira village, 120 kilometers south of Lodwar town.

Mr Natieng is one of a group of reformed cattle rustlers who are supported by Turkana Rehabilitation Programme (TRP) to advance their economic liberation through irrigated agriculture.

“I lost countless cows in the past to cattle raiders from the neighbouring community. This programme has come in as a godsend. I have lost so many animals to raiders from Pokot North and Uganda that I have now turned to crop cultivation,” the 37-year-old farmer says.

He also grows onions and vegetables on the banks of River Turkwell.

THOUGHT OF GIVING UP

“The going was not easy after venturing into agriculture at first, a field that I had little knowledge about. At one point I thought of giving up but I had no other alternative source to sustain my family,” Natieng told Seeds of Gold as he checked if the crop is ready for harvest for the market in Lodwar and other parts of the vast and arid county.

And once the crops are harvested they fetch a fortune in the market. “It is the finger millet that fetches more money, selling at up to Sh7,200 per 90kg bag. Although it is labour intensive, the prices are good,” says the farmer who cultivates five acres and produces an average of 50 bags of sorghum.

He also harvests 16 bags of finger millet from two acres. The 90kg bag of sorghum goes for between Sh3,600 and Sh4,200.

Most of the crops are sold in Kainuk, Lokichar, Lodwar and Lokichogio townships in the county. The farmer also sells some of the supplies to traders from South Sudan and Moroto in Uganda, and uses the proceeds to educate his children and support his family.

It, however, took farmers in the area a long time before increasing crop productivity and break even. “Apart from lack of modern production techniques, we had a problem of accessing market for the produce,” said Mrs Samal Lowoya, another farmer.

The impressive results have motivated the mother of six to try the more sophisticated drip irrigation that is more economical and attracts better returns.

“It took many years that involved tours to modern agricultural farms like Delamare in Nakuru to know how the system works. Anyway, I decided that was the way to go and what I have achieved is impressive,” Lowoya adds, pointing out flash floods and shortage of water as some challenges they face.

Similar projects have been replicated by their counterparts living along River Kerio and seasonal Rivers in Turkana County to attain food security and as source of income.

Natieng and Samal’s success stories support what experts have always said, that irrigation is the key to bringing vast wastelands into food production and wealth creation.