Peninah Gakanga, a smallholder farmer from Mukangu in Kiharu constituency, Murang’a county, has for many years been farming vegetables at a small-scale level for sale in her village.
But her practice changed in 2021 when she met the World Vegetable Centre (WorldVeg), a global not-for-profit organisation that focuses on vegetable research and development, and was issued with seeds to start planting a variety of vegetables agroecologically.
Once matured, Gakanga said the demand for the vegetables sky-rocketed as more neighbours demanded organically grown vegetables and shunned the conventional ones.
“The organisation told me to practice agroecology on a small portion of my farm and compare to the ones I was farming conventionally and the yields were phenomenal,” she said.
Since then, the farmer got encouraged and stopped using conventional fertilisers and pesticides on her farm, saying the vegetables tasted better and made her more money.
Gakanga underwent training on the various agroecological practices that include the production of compost manure and with the increased sales, she was able to embark on dairy goat farming that further supplemented her income.
In the neighbouring Kangema constituency, 26-year-old Edgar Omondi said they formed a youth group in 2022 together with his neighbours to start income-generating activities that included selling vegetables.
The group, he said, was then introduced to WorldVeg through its field researchers and was encouraged to start practising agroecology. After comparing the yields, the group transitioned to organic farming and watched its returns grow.
His father gave the group a half-acre piece of land that the group used for its activities and in which they also started a vegetable nursery.
“We have gone to numerous exchange visits with other groups doing the same kind of thing and our exposure greatly enhanced,” he said, noting that the group plans to upscale its activities by farming in greenhouses.
WorldVeg partnered with SNV Netherlands Development Organisation as an implementing partner in 2020 to consolidate farmers into Vegetable Business Network groups that bring together players in the entire vegetable value chain.
The project dubbed Veggies 4 Planet & People (V4P&P) is being implemented in Kenya and Ethiopia and promotes farming of traditional African vegetable using regenerative agricultural practices to create jobs for women and youths in Murang’a, Kiambu, Machakos, Vihiga, Kakamega and Kisumu counties.
But according to Ralph Roothaert, WorldVeg’s Kenya country director, another research initiative dubbed Greener Greens was started in 2021 under V4P&P project that zeroed in on Murang’a county as one of the main suppliers of vegetables to Nairobi city.
“We looked at areas closest to Nairobi where vegetables are grown and I think we made the right choice because we subsequently found out that Murang’a county is very keen on agroecology,” Roothaert said.
Implemented for three years, the project focused on research aimed at debunking the myth that agroecology is not commercially viable.
“We were able to show that within one or two seasons, you can not only maintain your yields of vegetables but improve them," Roothaert said.
“That was a major concern in the scientific community, that if you move away from conventional agriculture and stop using fertilisers and chemical pesticides, yields will go down and diseases and pests will ravage your crops.
“Farmers have told us that they prefer the vegetables produced agroecologically and they feel that their health has improved,” he said.
Roothaert said that consuming foods that are organically produced reduces exposure to cancer causing substances.
Data collected from 137 farms indicated that of the four target crops, kale had the highest average yield of 8.8 tonnes per hectare, amaranth followed with 3.6 tonnes per hectare, African nightshade produced 1.3 tonnes per hectare and pumpkin leaves had 0.8 tonnes per hectare, confirming that higher yields were recorded in the agroecological farmed produce.
“For example, yields were a third higher for kale and yields from agro ecological plots were more marketable than those from conventional plots with post harvests slightly lower,” the country director said.
“Interestingly, due to better perceived taste and the fact that they have not been chemically treated, households consumed more agroecological vegetables than those from conventional farms.”
The project, he said, will enter into its second phase in May this year and expand to Nyandarua county while incorporating more vegetables and crops.
In this phase, the organisation will be working with a team of partners to look into water harvesting and water conservation technologies that will allow vegetables to be grown off-season.
He said many farmers face challenges in irrigating their farms despite being near rivers due to the hilly terrain.
“Many people may think Murang’a has a lot of rainfall but getting water from streams to farms is difficult. Even just transporting water for 100 metres from the river is an effort, especially in hilly areas,” Roothaert said.
“Water pumps that use petrol or diesel are expensive to maintain and solar pumps, though easy to use, are expensive to buy. We will consider linking farmers to financial systems to enable them to buy solar pumps.”
He said that farmers from other parts of the country organise themselves into groups and buy solar pumps together that they then rotate around their farms.
He added that some bio-pesticides producing companies are also putting in place measures that will make them available to farmers at the grassroots.
This, Roothaert said, is because bio-pesticides have a short life as they contain live organisms and therefore need to be kept cold.
“We have heard some companies saying they are planning to establish farmers’ centres where the products will be delivered and farmers can order for delivery,” he said.
Speaking during a meeting with stakeholders in a Murang’a hotel, he said the organisation had learnt lessons that will be useful in the second phase that will also be implemented for three years.
“Most importantly, we have achieved building a farming community through vegetable farming networks where farmers learn from each other and have been able to experiment and realise that agroecology works for them in terms of income and better nutrition,” he said.