Here’s your chance to win Amiran’s drip irrigation kit

Participating in the Inua Maisha Drip competition in the Saturday Nation’s Seeds of Gold pullout could win you a drip irrigation foundation kit.

This follows the continuing successful link between Seeds of Gold and Amiran Kenya that rewards readers and encourages them to adopt modern farming methods like drip irrigation.

Readers are expected to answer a question that will be published every Friday on Seeds of Gold Twitter handle for the next four weeks starting next week.

For one to win, he or she must be a follower of @seedsgold and @amiran_kenya.

The competition will be supervised by experts from Seeds of Gold and Amiran Kenya. The reader who answers first correctly will be the week’s winner.

Afterwards, Seeds of Gold and Amiran Kenya team will award winners on a weekly basis at a venue to be announced later. The names of the winners will be published on Seeds of Gold magazine and announced during Mkulima ni Ujuzi TV show on Qtv every Saturday.

The winners will receive an Amiran foundation kit, saving them up to Sh15,000.

The kit is aimed at boosting small-scale farmers who cannot afford the high cost of greenhouses, which cost 10 times more than the Amiran kit.

“While the Amiran kit retails for as low as Sh15,500, higher prices of greenhouses have barred many small-scale farmers from practising their passion,” said Amiran Kenya’s country deputy director Yariv Kedar.

AGRIBUSINESS OF CHOICE

He said users of the kit would have a complete package of farm inputs to enable them venture into agribusiness of their choice.

The package includes a drip kit measuring 15 by six metres, a 250-litre solid water tank and a one-litre sprayer. It also includes instructional growing guides, agro chemicals and high quality seeds.

Farmers are at liberty to choose the crop they want to grow.

According to Kedar, the drip kit can last for up to eight years if well-maintained.

“Farmers with small pieces of land, including those who would want to practise urban farming on their kitchen gardens, are now able to make an investment of about Sh15,500 and make returns of about Sh25,000 per season,” he said.

He added that the kit comes as a relief to small-scale farmers from arid and semi-arid areas of the country.

The technology will enable farmers to grow crops throughout the year and get high yields while conserving water as this technology saves 30-60 percent of water when compared to ancient methods. The kit comes as a boost to the youth venturing in agribusiness.

“Modern agribusiness does not entirely depend on the prevailing weather patterns as one can produce food throughout the year,” said Kedar, adding that this would be the best way to ensure food security in the country.