Farmers warm up to Sh20,000 ‘kadogo drip kit’

By BOB KOIGI

Smallholder farmers are warming up to a miniature portable drip kit that offers over 90 per cent efficiency in water conservation for only Sh20,000.  The kit comes at a time when water has become scarce due to unprecedented vagaries of weather.

 Invented by  agro-input company Elgon Kenya, the kit, popularly known as Kadogo Drip Kit, denoting its size, focuses on the tens of thousands of farmers boxed in by drastic climate changes, which range from drought to downpour, but cannot afford the highly priced kits like those used in greenhouses. A standard 8 by 15 metre greenhouse which is now in common use goes for between Sh120,000 to Sh150,000.

But the Kadogo Drip Kit costs six times less than the greenhouse kits. It ensures that majority of farmers who do not have large pieces of land manage to irrigate the little they have utilising all the water they pump to the farm.  The kit, which assists in fertigation, is neatly packed with one box to facilitate easy transportation, assembly and installation.

It is also fully gravity powered, eliminating the possibility of extra power costs incurred from pumping water from its source to the farm.

“It comes with high quality accessories, fully equipped with a 12mm drip line that is made of resistant materials for easy application of soluble fertilisers. These are fitted for special take off as they have lateral plugging abilities, which come in handy when only partial irrigation is required,” said Nelson Maina head of communications at Elgon Kenya.

 The kit which was launched last year, is meant to irrigate small plots of upto 500 metres squared and works with all crops including vegetables, cereals, pulses and fruit trees whether in the open field or inside greenhouses.  The drip pipes are spaced 50cm from each other allowing for complete water absorption by the plant. Farmers who have already adopted the kit especially in the semi arid areas of Kieni and Laikipia now say it has come as a welcome relief as the vagaries of weather bite. “We cannot afford some of the kits in the market and even their capacity is higher than we need on our small farms. The thing with the kadogo kit is that it allows us to get water faster to our small farming plots. The affordable pricing is another plus,” says Manuthu Kaburu a horticultural farmer.

Labour costs

Farmers who purchase the kit also get free demonstration of its use and support from the agronomists from Elgon Kenya. “Although its biggest minus is that it doesn’t come with a tank, it has helped me cut down on labour costs which were eating into my savings,” said Doroles Wamahiu who has bought four kits for her half acre piece of land. “Its thin pipes allow the water to drip specifically to individual plants reducing water run off, which hampers growth of weeds and eliminates wetting of the foliage thus minimising fungal diseases associated with dampness on plants.” The adoption of the kit comes in the wake of a report that identified small-scale irrigation as key to a near tripling of sub-Saharan Africa’s yields.  The report by The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), uncovered a revolution in the ways in which smallholders are driving low-cost farm and community water management.

The report dubbed, Water for wealth and food security: Supporting farmer-driven investments in agricultural water management, also unearthed for the first time the scale to which enterprising smallholders are driving the irrigation revolution by using their own resources innovatively rather than waiting for water to be delivered.

Farmers in this project are now realising some Sh300 a day per quarter acre, compared to Sh130 using rain fed systems. High productivity has led to improved livelihoods, with some farmers diversifying and investing in other sources of income such as small shops.

—FarmBiz Africa