Agriculture in Kenya

Over 80 percent of the population in Kenya farms for a primary living.Leahy, Stephen. Africa:Reinventing Agriculture. (2008, April 15). Retrieved April 21, 2008, from http://www.allafrica.com.] . Most of these farmers live and grow their crops between latitudes 48 N and 40 S, at altitudes from sea-level to 3000m.Geographical Distribution of Sweet Potato in Africa. Sweet Potato. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from http://www.infonet-biovision.org.]

The agricultural sector continues to dominate Kenya's economy, although only 15 to 17 percent of Kenya’s total land area has sufficient fertility and rainfall to be farmed, and only 7 or 8 percent can be classified as first-class land. [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Kenya.pdf Kenya country profile] . Library of Congress Federal Research Division (June 2007). "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain."] Mwanda, C.O. Engineering Division, Ministry of Agriculture. (2000). A note on weed control in Machakos District, Kenya. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from http://atnesa.org.] In 2006 almost 75 percent of working Kenyans made their living on the land, compared with 80 percent in 1980. About one-half of total agricultural output is non-marketed subsistence production. Agriculture is also the largest contributor to Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2005 agriculture, including forestry and fishing, accounted for about 24 percent of GDP, as well as for 18 percent of wage employment and 50 percent of revenue from exports.

Crops

The principal cash crops are tea, horticultural produce, and coffee; horticultural produce and tea are the main growth sectors and the two most valuable of all of Kenya’s exports. In 2005 horticulture accounted for 23 percent and tea for 22 percent of total export earnings. Coffee has declined in importance with depressed world prices, accounting for just 5 percent of export receipts in 2005. The production of major food staples such as corn is subject to sharp weather-related fluctuations. Production downturns periodically necessitate food aid—for example, in 2004 aid for 1.8 million people because of one of Kenya’s intermittent droughts. The production of major food staples such as corn is subject to sharp weather-related fluctuations. Production downturns periodically necessitate food aid—for example, in 2004 aid for 1.8 million people because of one of Kenya’s intermittent droughts.

Tea, coffee, sisal, pyrethrum, corn, and wheat are grown in the fertile highlands, one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa. Production is mainly on small African-owned farms formed from the division of formerly European-owned estates. Livestock predominates in the semi-arid savanna to the north and east. Coconuts, pineapples, cashew nuts, cotton, sugarcane, sisal, and corn are grown in the lower-lying areas.

Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potatoes provide their highest yield when grown in rain fed soil; they need also the soil moisture to remain constant. Although sweet potatoes can be grown in several types of soil, the preferred soil is well drained with sandy loam.Macharia, Peter. Kenya National Report. (2004, July 29). Gateway to Land and Water Information. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from http://www.fao.org.] If the soil holds the water near the surface, the soil becomes water logged. Water logged soil can destroy the root structure. For this reason, sweet potato plants are often grown in mounds or ridges. This system also is easier on the farmer who uses hand tools. In areas where the soil is well drained, plants are grown in flat rows. To decrease the loss of soil nutrition, when water is ample enough, the farmer must be careful with water run off and make sure the root system is adequately watered. Sweet potatoes need at least an annual rainfall of 600-1600 mm during the growing season.

The most common varieties that Kenyan sweet potato farmers have been growing are white, red, and purple varieties in their fields. There has been an increased popularity of the yellow-fleshed type of sweet potato. The nutritionists have been promoting a change to this yellow-fleshed type of sweet potato because it provides increased levels of vitamin A, which is currently lacking in the Kenyan diet.Nel, Michelle. GM Potatoes rejected in Year of Potato. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://www.biosafetyafrica.net. The Case of Transgenic Sweet Potato in Kenya. Retrieved May 4, 2008, from http://www.ielrc.org.] The vitamin A deficiency is not fatal, but it leaves the immune system depleted and susceptible to measles, malaria, and diarrhea. Over 350,000 children go blind each year for lack of vitamin A.

Despite intensive efforts to develop true resistant plants, little has been achieved so far. Therefore, attention is turning to pseudo resistance – escaping weevil damage through deeper formation of storage roots and short-season varieties, which are exposed to weevil infestation for less time. [International Potato Center. Biological Weevil Control. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from http://www.cipotato.org.] Where farmers piecemeal their sweet potato harvest, there can be up to a 10 percent crop loss, due to disease and weevils. Beetle pests can completely destroy sweet potato plantations.

Conventional Growing

Because of pest and disease, and decreased soil nutrients, farmers are rotating their sweet potato plants as much as possible. The practice had ben to use a field for sweet potato plants only once every 5 years, and not have the crop in the same field for two consecutive years. “Planting rice between two sweet potato crops have long been suggested." When sweet potatoes and rice crops were planted in fields adjacent to each other, the sweet potato weevil infestation level dropped. “Reduced weevil damage was observed when sweet potato was intercropped with proso millet and sesame, but sweet potato yield was also considerably reduced. The sweet potato has been found to inhibit germination of proso millet. This crop rotation and growing pattern is very common in Africa. Weed control requires many hours of manual labor. Uncontrolled weed growth reduces crop yield as much as 60 percent. “Some farmers solve this problem by cultivating a smaller area, but this also reduces total yields. Herbicides are too expensive for most smallholders." When the sweet potato plant is propagated a number of consecutive times, the yield decreases and the virus build-up increases. “Viruses can be removed by heat treatment. The process usually increases the yield product of both vine and roots, from 20% to 200%, depending on the severity of the original virus infestation” (Sweet Potato).

Organic Growing

An 8 year comparative studies the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems’ project compared “conventional farming systems with differing practices of crop rotation and soil substance.Vasilikiotis, Christos Ph.D. Energy Bulletin. (2001, January 31). Can Organic Farming “Feed the World?”: The legacy of Industrial Agriculture. Retrieved April 19, 2008, from http://www.energybulletin.net] The results showed that organic methods had yields in the same range as conventional systems for all crops that were studied, and for some crop studies the yield level was higher for organics than conventional systems. The organic systems were noted for “increases in the organic carbon content of the soil and larger pools of stored nutrients, each of which is critical for long-term fertility maintenance."

Sweet potato is typically grown organically about Africa. To decrease labor for weeding, farmers interviewed by Macharia (2004) expressed preference for planting on mounds after trying ridges. Farmers found mound methods yielded larger tubers, and more easy to use without new fertilizers or chemicals. Organic farming includes crop rotation, and mulches to control pests and soil fertility.

Organic farming by the Rothamsted and Rodale experiments have shown that “manure-based systems can provide enough nitrogen not only to sustain high crop yields but also to build up the nitrogen storage in the soil". According, to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Kenya had no percentage of certified organic cropland in 2003, yet certainly farmers use organic methods.

Genetically-Altered Growing

Many farmers in Kenya refer to GM Maize deleivered by the US as the Trojan horse. [Hand, E. (2006 , December 12 ). Biotech debate divides Africa . Knight Ridder Tribune Business News,Retrieved May 27, 2008, from ProQuest Database] GM’s are currently illegal in Kenya, and yet the US continues to send GM corn to Kenya in the form of Aid. [Black, R. (2004, August 9). Struggling to find GM's middle ground. Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-2/hi/science/nature/3662616.stm]

Kenyans and other African nations like Malawi and Zimbabe will grind the corn into flour before distributing it. Some activists have said that the US is purposefully distributing GM’s as aid, so that they can undercut the organic export market, and cause Europe to start buying from the US. Still other farmers simpy aren’t aware of GM’s, and others are as Celeb said, simply too poor. If a farmer uses the chemicals then the soil becomes poor, and the farmer can then find themselves in a predicament that they would not have encountered had they not used the chemicals and the GM’s. “To date (2006), over 30 million hectares of transgenic crops have been grown and no human health problems associated specifically with the ingestion of transgenic crops or their products have been identified (Easton, 2006).”

References