Membranes offer hope to farmers in arid area

The presence of sandy soils in lowland parts of Makueni negatively affects the quantity of food produced and types of crops that can be grown. Sandy soils have poor water holding capacity, low organic matter and do not retain nutrients in the root-zone when fertilised.

But there is hope. Researchers from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Jkuat), Jkuat Enterprises Ltd (Jkuates), Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and SWRT Solutions LLC installed soil water retention membranes on 18 demonstration farms in Mtito-Andei and Masongaleni wards in Kibwezi sub-county, Makueni county. Funded by the Nordic Development Fund, the project aims to increase farm system resilience, crop production and carbon accumulation in sandy soils in the county. The Subsurface Water Retention Technology (SWRT) involves the installation of subsurface impermeable water retaining membranes which disrupts large amounts of water and nutrients lost through natural deep percolation in sandy soils explains Dr Shem Kuyah.
Dr Kuyah says, SWRT represents a long-term solution to increasing income and the capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change on highly permeable soils. 
“Combining SWRT membranes with irrigation diversifies production, and can permit a three-season farming cycle which allows the possibility of year-round production,” says  Kuyah, one of the researchers of the project.
The project will be concluded in October 2022. The project team is working on a business case beyond the funding period, which allows the scaling up of the benefits the technology brings to farmers. In addition to seven trained local membrane installers, the team includes a sales representative.