Conservation Agriculture (CA) for higher yields and frost bite mitigation in Laikipia Kenya: harvest and plant straightaway

It is not a secret! Early planting and good agronomic practices, as advocated for by extension workers, enable farmers to realise higher yields. Farmers’ indigenous knowledge of soaking seeds prior to planting to optimally utilise first rains, is proof that they understand the benefits of early planting. The hurdle has remained “how” to realise early seeding when they had to wait for the first rains to commence tillage; and there is a long queue for the oxen or tractor tillage service provider. Besides the waiting, ploughing is time consuming, costly and arduous – necessitating those using the ox plough to walk 42 km to plough 1 hectare. Non-tillage based farming, as practiced in CA has provided the opportunity and evidence how early planting can truly be realised.

Ms Grace Migwi and the other 112 farmers in Laikipia hosting baby or mother demonstration plots (figure 1) do not plough but plant in the stubble - crop residue covered fields - using as appropriate the machete, hoe opened planting basins, hand ripper planting basins, jab planter or animal drawn direct seeder. The basket of affordable and accessible no-till planting options empower farmers to plant anytime they want. The innovative mind of Grace Migwi (and others) saw and seized the opportunity of residual moisture in CA fields, to sow the next crop immediately after planting. She harvested her maize crop (planted earlier under CA), on 17^th July 2015; and planted the next maize crop the following day (18^th July 2015) – figure 2. Note that it had not rained for the past 2 months as the last rains were received on 19^th May 2015 in the area. Nevertheless, that maize crop germinated perfectly and was 15 cm high by 25^th August without rain. By 31^st August, it had rained for 2 days and the crop had received 72 mm of rain, perfectly timed for efficient utilisation by the crop. The majority of her conventional tillage based neighbours are yet to harvest!

Conservation Agriculture has enabled these farmers to capture, store within the root zone and utilise every drop of rain water for crop productivity. Grace Migwi and some 10,000 other farmers in Laikipia and Machakos Counties of Kenya are active participants in CA adaptive research with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), partners to the Conservation Agriculture for Resilient Food Security and Profitability in Machakos and Laikipia Counties of Kenya (CA4FS) project coordinated and implemented by the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT). The project is funded by and implemented in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The project aims at building the capacity of farmers to practice CA as a climate smart technology and through the practice increase food productivity and get surplus for income generation.

The early adopters like Grace Migwi have embraced the technology and realised the gains that accompany adoption of the technology. She has proved that by practicing CA and early planting she can increase yields with minimal labour input. Lately, she has been getting even better yields than her neighbours who are using irrigation to produce the same crop not to mention the high cost of irrigation.

Through early planting Grace has also realised that her crops escaped damage from frost. By the time frost set in, as it does every year, the crop was already physiologically mature and not susceptible to frost damage. Her conventionally farming neighbours whose crop was still in the field suffered frost bite thus losing as significant proportion of their crops (figure 3). She has also learnt to practice relay plating in her fields to ensure no moisture is lost after her previous crop reaches physiological maturity. While Grace Migwi harvested on 17^th July with a bumper harvest the other farmers in the same area harvested in mid to late August and more are to harvest in September.

It is worth noting that with Conventional Tillage, using the hand hoe or the ox plough, early planting did not save the declining productivity. Albeit the use of inorganic fertilisers at the same rate as the CA plots, yields remained a paltry 2.2 tonnes per hectare (labelled 34 kg of maize on the cob), compared to 3.3 tonnes per hectare for CA without inorganic fertilisers (52 kg) and 4.1 tonnes per hectare for CA with inorganic fertilisers (63 kg) – figure 4. The effects of the cover crops (Dolichos lablab and Pigeon peas) intercropped with the maize, in terms of soil fertility improvement, grain legume production and gross margins are being documented for analysis.

Grace Migwi began practicing CA in March 2014. She has since that time not bought any maize flour as she used to do prior to practicing CA. Her main occupation is crop farming and rearing of dairy goats. She lives with her 2 grandchildren (one boy and a girl) who she provides for with food, clothing and school fees. Her farm is located within coordinates S 00.04669 and E 036.95188. The range of rainfall in her area is between 400-700 mm per year, but spread over two seasons. The short rain season is from September to December, and the main season runs from March to June.