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Partners in the agricultural sector convened to kick start a workshop for a scoping study seeking to identify key constraints that hinder the commercial rollout of a national liming program, verify how the lime product will be introduced into the market and develop a cohesive, impactful and scalable marketing strategy that will trigger and sustain significant farmer uptake. Mr. Henry Kinyua the Deputy Team Leader at the Kenya Soil Health Development Program noted:
‘Studies have shown that over 65% of our arable land is acidic, rendering the crops incapable of extracting the nutrients from the soil. The crops are therefore unable to extract the nutrients fed to them through the application of fertilizers. Their inability limits the yields, adding to the gleaming reality of food insecurity. Research has demonstrated that all is not doom and gloom and that the acidity in the soil can be reversed through the application of lime.’
On his part, Christian Witt, the Senior Program Officer for Soil health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, observed:
“Soil acidity is a common problem not only in Kenya but also in east Africa, and it’s a natural process that soils go through with time, and has something to do with rainfall and old soils being weathered. Soil acidification is something that one needs to pay attention to because if soil acidity becomes too strong, crop growth will be limited and other inputs like fertilizer will be used less efficiently by the crop. This is what we are currently looking at to see what is the best combination of public and private sector interventions to address the soil acidity issue in the country, especially for the small-scale farmers and also drive up the GDP through this agricultural sector intervention.”
Sheila Keino, the Executive Director, of Sustain Africa noted: “The importance of the scoping study we are undertaking on liming and soil health in Kenya is very important because we are losing yields due to soil acidity. We are looking at how to rehabilitate soils across the country starting with a few counties, so over the next three months we shall be working on a scoping study to go deep down and see how we can address the challenge of reversing pH so that farmers can get better yields. At the Nairobi declaration which came through after the Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in May, which stated that we need to rehabilitate at least 30% of our soils in Africa is very critical. Kenya needs to be at the forefront in addressing soil health and liming is one of them, ensuring our pH is corrected.
This will be the beginning of a large program that is seeking to pilot full-scale liming of at least 100,000 acres in two of the most acid soil-challenged counties in Kenya.
The workshop is convened by GoK, Sustain Africa and supported by the Gates Foundation.
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