By Philip Mwamrizi
One such farmer is Lucy Mwangi, a
resident of Naibrom in Laikipia County. After her hotel business collapsed in 2008,
Lucy decided to venture into small scale commercial agriculture by first building
a greenhouse.
Lucy said that returns from the green
house has helped the family improve its economic livelihood. The family has
been able to pay school fees, medical bills and even bought a piece of land in
the neighborhood to expand their plot. Many visitors have also been coming to
visit the farm to learn from her.
In the recent past agricultural
farming has taken a totally new dimension. Certified seeds customized for
regions, soil testing, commercial fertilizers and tested and approved modern
practice and farming techniques are the sectors’ new vocabulary.
With all this information out for
use, innovation and creativity has slowly crept into the minds of farmers where
one takes into practice specific or a combination of relevant info that best
works for him or her.
 |
| Lucy at her green house |
Her creativity and innovation drew in
her husband Francis Mwangi Mbugua who also started showing interest in the
project. Francis who is commonly known as ‘Fanana’ decided to scale down his
carpentry work in order to concentrate on farming.
“I could not afford erecting a green
house supported by metallic bars while buying a green house was beyond my
reach,” said Lucy.
“We had to be innovative. My husband built
this using timber poles and PVC material we brought in Nakuru. He is a
carpenter by profession so his skills really helped,” added Lucy.
The finishing process included
digging several trenches two feet wide and deep along the length and filling
them up with a mixture of rich top soil, saw dust, charcoal powder and other
plant waste to create fertile arable planting medium.
The family has grown tomatoes,
capsicum, onions, kales and spinach in the green house which is estimated to be
50 by 100 feet.
 |
| A visitor who came to view the green house |
Lucy’s youngest daughter who cleared
form four last year has also taken a keen interest in the project and now has a
portion of the greenhouse house set aside for her. She has now grown vegetables
in her portion of the green house.
Her innovation has constantly been
increasing as she seeks to improve yields. Saw dust and other waste from her
husband carpentry workshop always ends up in the farm. Water from the kitchen
is also recycled into the farm.
“I would advise other farmers that
they should not restrict themselves to size of land, rain pattern or good soil
to plant crops,” said Lucy.
Like any other project, the greenhouse
has its equal share of problems. The current rains experienced in the country
have been her biggest menace coupled with the strong winds in the region. The
weather mishap blew away PVC materials covering the structure. In some parts
trees swaying by wind and rubbing against the walls tore the material. More than
half the greenhouse was destroyed by strong winds.
Lucy also said that her other challenge
is lack of water for irrigating the crops in the greenhouse. Keeping the soil
moist has also been a challenge due to evaporation caused by heat in the
greenhouse. Others include pest and diseases which are common in any farm and
constant threat from elephants.
“Everything is possible. We are working with a
small piece of land but despite the challenges, we are succeeding,” said Lucy.
No comments:
Post a Comment