Adverse effects of climate change have forced pastoralists in Tana River to venture into crop farming.
Most lost almost all their livestock during the recent drought.
A visit to Santhama in Tana Delta, a remote part of the county, showed residents have turned to tilling land though with difficulty due to the inaccessibility of the area and high poverty levels.
Tana River Woman Representative Amina Dika is now supporting farmers from 15 villages with water pumps and pipes for irrigation.
The Ministry of Agriculture has also provided the farmers with seeds.
Santhama resident Mohamed Shobe said he ditched pastoralism three years ago following a severe drought that killed his animals.
“My journey of farming started three years ago when drought came and wiped out all my cows and that is when I decided to change from pastoralism to crop farming,” he said.
Shobe said he lost more than 100 heads of cattle.
He now grows maize, beans and cowpeas on four acres.
Shobe said the area is fertile but the area has no access roads, making it difficult for farmers to transport their produce to the market.
Besides lack of roads, he said they are facing it rough tilling land manually.
Farmer Galgalo Molu said as a pastoralist community they resolved to start farming because they lose animals each drought period.
“We started farming due to persistent drought which hurt livestock keeping,” he said.
Molu thanked the Woman Representative for giving them water pumps and pipes.
He said Santhama has more than 3,000 acres that can be put under farming.
Woman Rep Dika said she was impressed to see many pastoralists taking up crop farming.
“Traditionally, residents were pastoralists but climate change has driven people into farming and this will give us an edge because we have plenty of land,” she said.
Dika appealed to the government and donors implementing climate change projects to help Tana River residents who have ventured into farming but have little resources.
“Those organisations supporting climate change projects should give Tana River priority,” she said.
She said Tana Delta is vast and has fertile soils which if well utilised, can be a food basket.
Farmer Tabu Karisa said they have been relying on rain and when it fails, their crops die.
She said transporting crops after harvesting is also very expensive as a boda boda charges Sh300 per trip to take farm produce to the market.
“Even if I harvest 90 kilos of maize, I end up not getting profit because of the high transport costs, especially when its flooding,” she said.