Wilson Oduori is a smallholder farmer. He lives in Sikoma, Butula subcounty. He finds it inexcusable for a family with arable land not to grow some food crops.
His farm is three acres. His homestead stands on an eighth. He’s split the rest into several portions of a quarter of an acre. On one piece are assorted vegetables. On other quarters stand finger millet, sorghum, cassava and maize. The remainder is left fallow.
He’s slicing off the panicles of sorghum. He stacks them in small mounds unevenly interspaced on the portion from which he’s harvesting his crop. The variety is Seredo, bred by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro). The crop has matured after just three months.
“This is the first time for me to grow this kind,” he says. “It’s Kalro that introduced it to me. Prior to this, I used to grow the traditional one that would take four or five months.”
Since it is Oduori’s first time to harvest the Seredo sorghum variety, he’s not sure what yield he would reap. His family’s priority is to stash the unshelled sorghum heads into sacks.
“I’ll know the actual quantity after shelling,” he says. However, he’s optimistic. “The harvest appears better than that of the traditional kind. I think it will surpass the previous I’ve had.”
He was cultivating the traditional sorghum mainly for subsistence. “This one is for food and some income,” he says.
He has dug trenches in some parts of his farm to direct surface run-off rainwater to desired spots to boost groundwater retention. His vegetables are leafy. The dark green canopy of his cassava attests to how thriving these tubers are.
The Kenyan population depends on maize as the main staple. The ravages of climate change, coupled with certain diseases that sweep through maize plantations, subject the crop to a cycle of harvest uncertainties. Kalro considers finger millet an underutilised crop. Oduori is one of the farmers promoting the cereal.
Strictly speaking, millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a grass family crop characterised by broad leaves and bristly panicles, or clusters of seeds also includes similar grasses such as sorghum. In other words, sorghum is also a millet.
The kind of crops that Oduori grows demonstrates that rural livelihoods could easily be sustained if land is properly utilised. This could immensely contribute to food, nutrition and some income security of families.
Oduori is fairly contented with what his farm produces. This has reduced the products that he obtains from the markets.
Over the years, Oduori used to grow maize on a much larger parcel of his farm. But due to erratic weather patterns contributed by climate change, he delved in food diversification.
His family now has several options for flour from the grains that he harvests. The four crops — finger millet, cassava, sorghum and maize — could be ground independently to produce pure flour. Blended flour from two or more of the crops could also be an alternative.
The nutritive element of millet gives it an edge over other cereals. A Kalro food scientist in Kakamega, Dr Francis Wayua says, “It is high in carbohydrates, especially starch, a bit of proteins, which have some essential amino acids. It’s also rich in minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, iron and zinc.”
Nutritious foods may not always be tasty. Millet fits here. Taste for it has to be acquired. “Taste can influence your eating for nutrition,” Dr Wayua says. He yearns for the crop to be promoted among the population of farmers and consumers since it’s nutritious.
In Kenya, Dr Wayua says, “Whenever porridge baby foods are prepared, finger millet has to be incorporated.” He believes what’s lacking is nutritional education and adequate behavior change communication to urge the population to embrace millet foods.
Value addition enhances consumption. Dr Wayua says apart from ugali and porridge, there are other foods that could be made from millets. These could include spreads similar to peanut butter.
One great disadvantage Oduori has had to contend with is the bird menace. “Birds really love the new variety of sorghum,” he says. “Despite positioning scarecrows, we haven’t been successful in deterring the birds from pecking at the grains.”
A leading Kalro finger millet breeder, Dr Chrispus Oduori says, “Quelea, is a small-sized grain-eating bird that can be problematic.” However, he’s noticed that these birds don’t eat much.
He has a suggestion. “If you have the Panicum grasses growing around finger millet, the birds go to the Panicum seed first before they come to the finger millet.”
Nonetheless, Dr Oduori says it depends on the variety planted. “The dark red-grained varieties are not preferred by birds.”
Furthermore, the breeder believes that if many farmers were to delve into finger millet, the increased acreage of finger millet will spread the risk, and the effects of birds will be minimal.