Shrinking land forces farmers to be smarter

Echuka Farm in Limuru, off the Nairobi-Nakuru superhighway was the ideal farm back in the day.

Surrounded by a river that supplied it with water when it was not raining, the farm sat on a 30-acre piece of land and was green all year round. It was the model farm for aspiring local farmers who came to get inspiration in livestock and crop farming.

Echuka Farm dates back to the colonial period where the original owner, a white settler, set the pace in farming before it was purchased by Cecilia Cege who expanded the farming enterprise.

Having established a successful dairy industry complete with a milk processing plant that churned out yoghurt, the farm attracted visitors beyond the Kenyan borders.

Thuo Cege, son to the founder who is now the director of the farm, said among their guests included Albert Rene, former Seychelles president and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jim Bolger.

Also, former president of Zambia Frederick Chiluba, South Africa’s First Lady Marike De-Klerk and Uganda’s first lady Janet Museveni are said to have toured the farm to marvel at its beauty. Then, the farm had cabbages, spices, spinach, traditional vegetables among other crops. There were hundreds of dairy cows too that supplied the milk-processing plant. Then, there were a few such factories in the region.

But that is in the past now, as today, little is left of the expansive farm that was an agricultural reserve for aspiring farmers.

In places strictly set aside for crop farming, tall buildings now stand to suggest that the once purely agricultural piece of land is slowly becoming a real estate venture.

Though Thuo’s inclination to real estate is evident, he says he is not abandoning agriculture, which the farm is well known for.

“Real estate is a long term investment but farming gives instant profits. I am not planning to leave agriculture at all,” says Thuo.

The fate of the one-time-famed Echuka Farm is not an isolated case in challenges facing farming as more land is converted into real estate. According to experts, investment in the real estate is posing a threat to agriculture as farms near urban settings are converted into building space.

Apparently, parcels of land around major cities and towns are the biggest casualties as investors construct houses for sale or rental apartments. In the process, even the original land owners renowned for farming have been lured into the trade.

At the moment, Thuo is supervising the real estate project on some 15 acres of the huge chunk of land that he inherited from his parents. He has spared the other half for growing vegetables and rearing sheep and dairy cows.

Six main residential houses have so far been completed on the chunk reserved for construction while construction of 20 others is ongoing.

Thuo, 47, revealed that before he invested in real estate, Echuka farm had 100 dairy cows but the construction has so far forced him to reduce the number to 20.

The processing plant is still in operation producing 500 litres of yoghurt every day against the 2,000 litres it used to process in the past. The reduction has seen profits reduced by over 75 per cent.

Coping mechanisms

Continued shrinking of agricultural space has prompted farmers who are still interested in farming, especially in areas around major towns seek ways to realise maximum output from the available little space.

According to Prof Stephen Diang’a, the Dean of the school of Architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), landscape designers need to promote urban farming through the various innovative ideas.

“As more and more agricultural land is converted into building space especially around major towns, architects need to come up with innovative designs that will promote urban farming,” says Prof Diang’a.

According to the professor, a lot of space in residential areas that could be put into some form of farming remains idle. This, he says, is space on balconies or roofs of buildings and even in garages.

For instance, Million Skoda, an urban farmer grows mushrooms at an empty space in her garage. For a year now, she hasn’t bought mushrooms as the 10 bags where she has planted them at her home in Ridgeways, along Kiambu Road yields enough to feed her family.

And elsewhere in Syokimau, all that Sharon Olang needed to maintain a steady supply of vegetables for her family was a concrete space measuring about 6 by 3 metres outside her two-story residential house. Here, Ms Olang grows spinach, managu, terere, onions bok choy.

“I consider this my best training because I want to venture into vegetable farming for alternative income sometime this year. Here, I am learning the basics involved including all the steps required to grow different types of vegetables,” she said.

Prof Diang’a said farmers in growing towns are now using the least available space to practice commercial agriculture.

“I have seen a farmer in Syokimau who is zero-grazing his dairy cows on a quarter of an acre from where he gets not less than 40 litres of milk in a day. Out of this, he needs just a litre for his household and sells the rest,” says Prof Diang’a.

He recounts of yet another farmer on the fringes of the capital who has invested in a chicken coop in which she rears 200 birds for eggs which she sells to eateries.

According to Diang’a, those looking to construct residential houses in town and still have an interest in farming have a variety of ways to kill two birds with one stone.

“Take those who need natural sun breakers for instance. If one uses passion fruits in their homes, they can achieve the purpose of creating a good shade in their urban homes and they can harvest and sell the passion fruits,” says Diang’a.

There is also a lot of unexploited farming space on the rooftops of buildings in urban areas that can be put to agricultural use, according to Diang’a.

“There is a lot of space left idle on flat roofs of buildings that could otherwise be converted into gardens. Such space should not just be left for airing laundry and installing equipment for solar energy,” he says.

Despite the changing nature of his business from agriculture to real estate, Thuo said he remains a farmer and had sought alternative ways of continuing with the farming.

Among them is maximum utilisation of the remaining 15 acres of land where he grows vegetables, keeps the remaining dairy cows and rears sheep.

He has his farm irrigated to ensure that there is uninterrupted cultivation leading to high production. The larger part of the land under sprinkler irrigation contains cabbages, spices, spinach and traditional vegetables among others.

Additionally, he has leased 100 acres in Limuru where he grows maize that is harvested and used as silage for the dairy cows.

 “With the changing climatic conditions and increasing desertification, agricultural land continues to shrink. We need to devise methods to farm even in semi-arid land. We need to do what the Israel are doing,” adds Diang’a.