October 07, 2021

Pioneering Eco-Efficient Dairy Agriculture in Nyeri

At first sight, the dry, barren landscape of Watuka village in Nyeri County, Kenya can mislead one that it is not conducive for agriculture. However, the story of Grace Nyambura, 74, provides an exemplary tale of what passion, determination and a relentless thirst of knowledge can help one achieve. These traits have led her to be a model dairy farmer in the area.

Grace’s experience in agriculture is vast, spanning over forty years. Due to illness, she was forced to leave her job in Nairobi in the mid-90s and relocate to Nyeri county on 5-acre piece of land that she and her husband had bought. Her illness made crop cultivation a challenge due to the manual work involved, and this made dairy agriculture the most viable alternative for Grace to pursue.

To further her knowledge in dairy farming, Grace enrolled herself for trainings at Wambugu Farm, a nearby Agricultural Training Center. That was when she got to learn about using dairy meal to enhance cow nutrition and boost milk production. She managed to get a dairy meal supplier from Thika, Kenya (nearly 100km away) who regularly used to deliver dairy meal to her farm. Thanks to use of modern feeding techniques, her cows at the time were doing very well and with her neighbours curious about her success, she organized trainings for them from her dairy meal supplier.

The milk that she used to produce was sold to a local cooperative society which after some management troubles unfortunately collapsed. This led to sourcing for alternative markets for her milk, which led her to Kieni Dairy Products Limited (KDPL).

Demonstration Farm for Fodder Production

Thanks to the relationship she has developed over the years with KDPL, Grace is now the host of a 2SCALE sponsored leaning farm called Ebenezer, where villagers congregate on a monthly basis to learn about modern agricultural practices. The farm has demonstration plots with crops such as lucerne, brachiaria, sorghum, yellow maize, and sunflower that farmers can utilize as fodder crops to enhance milk production, given the adverse climatic conditions of the area. Particularly in a semi-arid area as Watuka, fodder crops are very essential as they require little water to mature whist also providing high quantities if the essential nutrients needed by cattle.

“The demonstration farm is really helping dairy farmers to improve their productivity. Every month we meet at least once to teach people about modern agricultural practices. We get extension officers from KDPL as well as agri-finance and input companies who come and train my fellow farmers from the area,” says Grace.

Promotion of eco-efficient agriculture is one of the key goals of 2SCALE with a target of having 375,000 hectares under climate-smart agriculture by 2023.

At her farm, Grace today keeps 2 dairy cattle for her sustenance. On average she gets around 10 litres per day, which given the climate of the area, is attributable to the enhanced feeding regimen she has put in place for her cows. Grace also produces silage at the farm which has helped to enhance her milk production especially in the months where there is prolonged drought.

Embracing Technology in Agriculture

Grace is also one of the dairy farmers in the area who are using the DigiFarm system that has been implemented thanks to the KDPL-2SCALE partnership. Digifarm is entire milk procurement and payment settlement processes for Kieni Dairy Products Ltd (KDPL) and its seven affiliate co-operative societies into DigiFarm’s Dairy Management Solution. This solution aims to use mobile technology to decrease the cost and risk of transacting with smallholder farmers and support informed decision making using real-time data from the field.

“I was in Nairobi some weeks back and I left my neighbour to ensure that milk from my cows is given to the milk transporter from KDPL. She gave the milk but immediately that happened, I got an SMS from KDPL showing that the milk volumes delivered were lower than normal. I immediately followed up and found out what was going on. This system is very good as it helps cut down on cases of under delivery to KDPL.”

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