Farmers in Kisumu and Vihiga have received post-harvest produce handling equipment to reduce post-harvest losses and enhance food security.
The equipment includes driers, threshers, seed cleaners and airtight glass jars for safe storage of seeds of traditional leafy vegetables, legumes, sorghum, millet, maize, ground nuts and pumpkin among others.
The equipment was donated to three community seed banks operating in the Kisumu and Vihiga counties under the seed component of One Consortium of International Agriculture Research Centers (CGIAR) Nature Positive Solutions initiative which is coordinated by the International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).
The initiative is also aimed at reducing drudgery and enhancing income generation for economic empowerment.
A farmer from Nyando, Kisumu, Dorine Oruku said the machines for threshing, winnowing, solar driers and storage containers were highly beneficial to women, children and youth who bear the burden of post-harvest labour.
The member of Kabudi Agoro Community Seed Bank said women and children work for hours threshing grain pods with sticks, collecting the spilt grains and winnowing with decimal results in terms of work done.
“Women and their children toil for hours under the scorching sun to only end up with one or two bags of clean grain and are still required to dry it in the open for several days. Sometimes even five days of pouring the produce out and taking it back to the store,” she said.
Oruku said the threshing machine can thrash up to five bags of pulses which are equally quickly winnowed through technology, put in the drier, packed and stored away in the seed bank with minimal labour.
ICARDA Seed Technologist and Rangeland Ecologist, Abdoul Aziz said the organisation provides access to innovations and technologies for smallholder farmers with a focus on the farmer-preferred crop cultivars grown for food such as pulses, sorghum, millet, Maize, and traditional leafy vegetables.
“ICARDA’s main focus is to bridge the innovation gaps that have not been addressed by the public sector,” said Aziz, who doubles up as the Regional Coordinator for the Arabian Peninsula Regional Program.
“I came to Kenya under the Nature Positive Solutions Initiative, my main area is in the component of seed systems where the organisation is working with partners at the Kenyan Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Genetic Resources Research Institute (GeRRI) and the Alliance Bioversity and International Center for Tropical Agriculture- CIAT (The Alliance),” he said.
Aziz said ICARDA opted to work with smallholder farmers who organised themselves in communities with the support of the Alliance of Bioversity and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture-Ciat (The Alliance) to collect indigenous crops, produce the seed and maintain the integrity of the populations of their preferred local varieties.
“The farmers through their groups and seed banks multiply indigenous crops seeds, exchange and sell them (the seeds) to other farmers to produce food and feed,” he said.
He added that the ICARDA team accompanied by The Alliance collaborators visited the farmers a year ago discussed and identified their needs which were mainly in post-harvest grain handling.
“The farmers said they can produce but threshing, cleaning, packaging and storage had been a great challenge, especially among women who bear the drudgery of most farm operations,” he said
Aziz said ICARDA identified four innovative technologies that would help overcome the challenges which included airtight storage containers, threshers, winnowers, and solar driers.
He said the organisation donated driers that protect produce from insects, dust, mould and rain throughout the drying process.
He observed that threshing machines were quicker instead of using the old way of beating the produce with sticks which was tiring to women and children and damaging to the grain.
Aziz expressed optimism that the interventions would result in improved productivity and product quality.
His sentiments were echoed by Evan Ochuto, farmer and member of Vihiga Community Seed Bank and Nutrition Center who said the machines could also be used to dry vegetables thereby helping in storage and value addition.
“Communities in most of the areas of intervention experience short rainy seasons and longer dry spells, the excess vegetables produced during the wet season can be dried and stored to enhance food security during drought,” he said.
Ochuto said the surplus dried vegetables can also be sold and the income used for sustaining the seed bank.
He said seeds can now be safely stored for two to three years without the danger of mould because they are well-dried and kept in airtight containers.
The three farmer groups which benefitted from machine donation include Kabudi Agoro Seed Bank which is run by 25 women, Vihiga Community Seed Bank and Nutrition Center and Nyando Seed Bank.
They are part of farmers benefitting from the Nature Positive Initiative, an initiative of The Alliance and the project is co-funded by Bio-vision.
The Initiative aims to re-imagine, co-create and implement nature-positive solutions-based agri-food systems that equitably support food and livelihoods on the ground, while simultaneously ensuring that agriculture is a net positive contributor to nature.