Ups and downs of pioneering agriculture

The sky was overcast and gloomy as I drove into Nairobi on August 1, 1955.

I had driven up in a Land Rover from Durban over a period of six months, visiting agricultural research stations in southern Africa as part of my training for work in Kenya.

I felt some trepidation as I had read about Mau Mau and realised something of that unfolding tragedy after meeting various people in London, one of whom was Joseph Murumbi, who later served briefly as independent Kenya’s Vice-President.

The colonial government had been warned of the growing frustration of people in Central Kenya, and it had led to the Mau Mau emergency.

While trying to cope with the emergency, the government initiated a plan to “Intensify African Agriculture”, that became known as the Swynnerton plan.

One component of the plan was to improve range lands and three posts were earmarked for scientists to carry out pasture research in semi-arid areas.

As a young fresh graduate of Cambridge University, I was about to take up one of those posts and begin a career in Kenya.

At the time of my arrival, the main road to the city centre was Enterprise Road. The Mombasa Road that now links the city to the airport had not then been constructed.

I recall that soon after arrival, I met the person who was to supervise my work, a botanist by the name of A.V Bogdan. I was alarmed to find him carrying a revolver.

After a brief spell at the Grasslands Research Station at Kitale, I was sent to Machakos District, and early in 1956, I was given the task of developing Katumani Farm as a research station. It had been a European owned dairy ranch that the government had purchased.

I started research on pastures and bush control, while other scientists worked on maize breeding and crop agronomy. I had much to learn, but it was a rewarding time.

In hindsight, I realise how little I understood about the environment and the socio-economic constraints facing the Kamba farmers, but I did get involved in a major experiment on the rehabilitation of degraded land. It was known as the Makavete Square Mile.

One of the issues with which the government was greatly concerned was the extent of land degradation and soil erosion. There was a belief in certain circles that the goat was largely responsible.

I laid out an experiment at Katumani with paddocks, some of which were grazed by cattle alone and some by cattle and goats.

My aim was to see if controlled grazing and browsing by cattle and goats would not only raise the overall productivity of the land but would also prevent bush encroachment.

I employed a small boy to watch the goats to make sure they didn’t stray. Imagine my embarrassment when I was asked to take the Director of Agriculture, Roger Swynnerton and several VIPs to see the experiment, only to find that the goats were out on the main road and the herds boy was nowhere to be seen.

During those years, the Machakos Club was not open to Africans, and although there was a Machakos Rugby Team, to which I belonged, there were no African participants. Some of the newly appointed expatriates, such as myself, queried this, but there was no progress for several years.

The biggest event for me during the six years that I spent at Katumani was getting married in February 1961. I had met my wife, Ruth, a citizen of USA, while on leave in UK.

In 1961, we felt the need to move on and so I resigned from government service and went into farming and teaching.