At the Kiriachene junction along the Meru-Nanyuki highway, a murram road runs for six kilometers.
The dust on the road and the sight of yellowing grass by the roadside is an indication that the area is dry.
Most crops on the farms are drying up prematurely and the ground is cracking.
But at Jennifer Murogocho’s farm in Kiirua, about 15km outside Meru town, is green standing out in the midst of withering crops.
It is unbelievable that Murogocho’s four-acre maize plantation is lush green.
Her black beans are green too and flowering. Ordinary beans, on the other hand, have dried up, not because of the heat but because they are mature and awaiting harvest.
FARMS DIFFERENTLY
Murogocho is a nominated Member of the Meru County Assembly and chair of the pre-school education and vocational training committee.
She is also a Bachelor of Arts student in Public Policy and Administration at Kenyatta University. She is a renowned farmer here, because she farms differently.
She was brought up in a family of farmers but she has has a career in banking. She says agriculture has always been in her blood and that even when she sought formal employment, she never neglected farming.
“I started serious farming in 1991. At that time I had about Sh10,000 which I used to plant potatoes on one acre. The seeds were very good and yielded 80 bags. This whetted my appetite. I used the profits to expand my business,” says the farmer. She has 18 acres under cultivation.
After four years of growing potatoes, Murogocho shifted to wheat farming because potatoes are labour intensive.
“My first wheat crops did not yield much because I was not knowledgeable on the dos and don’ts,” she adds.
But how does she keep her farm green amidst the desolate dryness? The answer is in the art of playing hide-and-seek with seasons.
With her farming wholly dependent on rain, she has mastered the seasons and knows when to carry out weeding, planting, harvesting.
She plants wheat and maize during the long rainy season between October and February.
“I plough the land in July and leave it alone until October when I plant. This ensures the soil gets enough sunshine before the seeds are put in the ground,” Murogocho explains.
In October when it begins to rain, she plants the wheat on a single day. “I hire youths and women to do the planting in one day for uniformity of crop growth. I plant wheat on 14 acres and maize on four. The portion I grow the maize on is not flat enough for machine usage as wheat is highly mechanised.” She has subdivided her farm with trees after every three acres.
As soon as the wheat starts germinating, she sprays it to prevent growth of weeds. She says keeping the shamba ‘‘clean’’ is what makes her crops green even when it is dry.
“Most people ignore their farms after planting. This gives space for weeds which compete with the crop,” explains Murogocho.
The wheat is ready in February, and she harvests using a machine. She does not plant wheat again until the long rains are back.
EARLY MATURING MAIZE
For the short rains, she plants mainly beans and early maturing maize. “Beans take about three months to mature and can do well during the short rains.” She plants different maize seeds for the long and short rainy seasons.
“During the short rains, I buy maize seeds that can mature in about three months. Even if the rain is little, it stops when the crops are mature and, therefore, do not dry up like in the other farms.”
She notes that most local farmers just buy similar seeds despite the differing seasons. The little rains this season stopped before most of the crops in the area had matured.
She also sprays the crops using a foliar feed known as ‘‘green miracle’’ that she says assists the crops to resist dryness.
The spray makes the plants retain water and stay green until maturity.
Her maize will be ready this month after which she will prepare land to await wheat planting. That is her farming cycle.
And Murogocho does not sell her produce at just any price. “After harvesting, I do research to find out the market prices. Once I have established the price, I set my own,” she explains. A go-getter, she knows the business side of farming and not even brokers can con her out of her produce.
She confesses that she does not have to look for market as most of the local brokers and buyers know her and know that she does large-scale farming. “I get calls from interested buyers. I tell them my price and if they are willing to buy, they come for it from my farm.”
INCREASE PROFIT
Selling her produce at the farm also helps increase the profit margins because she does not incur transport costs.
In a good season, she gets about 200 bags of wheat. “Last season the rains failed us and I got only 104 bags. But that was better than what most people got,” she says. She sells a bag at Sh3,000. From wheat, she makes a profit of about Sh400,000 after deducting running costs averaging Sh200,000.
Currently, she harvests about 25 bags of maize, each weighing 90kg, from every acre, which she sells at Sh2,500.
“Bean production has been falling, I think due to depletion of some nutrients. I get five bags an acre which I sell at Sh5,000 each,” Murogocho says. She has eight acres under beans.
Good timing is a technique which has given her big rewards even when the weather is tough.
“You cannot afford to postpone any work on your farm. If you fail to spray to prevent weeds from growing just for one week, you will find your farm full of the unwanted plants which take away the nutrients,” says Murogocho.
Godfrey Musyoka, a Ministry of Agriculture officer, Kisima ward, Meru says using foliar fertiliser helps plants retain greenness for longer.
“Foliar feed helps a plant acquire food through leaves. The plant absorbs the essential nutrients through the leaves which promotes their growth and keep them green and healthy,” says Musyoka.