Tana River is “seasonal”. The water capacity can’t support large scale agriculture all year round. Economies of large scale won’t accrue. The water level at times goes down so much so that I’m forced to connect up to 100 pipes to get to the water.
That irrigation
Mbona kusiwe na farming corridors instead
Bonobo @Ndindu anadhani Tana river ni kama nile and I remember posting here that the nile is a very large river. You can’t just copy paste solutions like that.
True. I have some acres near the river but irrigating it through out the year is a tall order.
Hahaha.
Tungepatia mwarabu Galana-Kulalu, a moneypit
Kenya and Africa’s food insecurity is deliberately maintained by those who make policies like
- Force them to grow crops they can’t eat but can export to earn dollars to repay IMF/WB loans.
That’s why we have 100’s of 1000’s of acres under tea, coffee, flowers etc in fertile areas where manpower is readily available but can’t grow food to eat there.
I’d rather sell tea and coffee and buy maize. The cash crops have a huge international market unlike food crops for local market. We are currently seeing mangoes rotting due to lack of markets. The other day it was tomatoes and cabbages rotting in farms. Uzuri wa tea and coffee is that once the factories do local processing, the commodities can be stored for long as you look for markets. Also an acre of tea generates more income than an acre of maize.
Mzungu farmed in Kenya for 70yrs and mapped every acre of the country to know what could do best in different areas. His planning was long term coz he never knew he would be leaving. So whatever crops or animals mzungu recommended for an area those are the best suited for the area, unless the market collapses like pyrethrum and farmers can then switch to alternative crops or dairy. It would be stupid to uproot tea and coffee to grow maize and cabbages. Maize is a C4 grass best suited to warmer lower to mid altitudes not the cool high elevation tea zones.
All the income from cashcrops goes to repay loans
Depends on the coop. Good management = good income. Also the big producers market the produce themselves.
An acre of maize will give about 15 bags of maize. 15x3000 bob each = 45000. Less 50% production cost = about 23k. Meanwhile an acre of tea can give you more.
TEA FARMING = MODERN SLAVERY
1 Like
Who exactly do you propose implements such an ambitious project? The same ministry of agriculture that is yet to figure out why people in Turkana are starving while people in Nyandarua are throwing cabbages away?