Abstract: Traditional/backyard pig production systems are found in the larger Western Kenya while commercial systems are predominant in Eastern and Central Kenya including Nairobi. The pig holdings in Coast and few in North-Eastern are commercial systems. The expansion and improvement of the market for pigs and pig products generally in Kenya may explain why pig- keeping is beginning to be found outside traditional pig-keeping areas. The objectives of the study were: 1) To characterize pig p...
Abstract: In East Africa, insect farming is a rapidly growing business providing access to ‘climate-smart’ protein, other nutrients, and income. With the continental drive to transform existing food systems that are becoming continuously unsustainable due to scarcity of arable land and water, and high ecological imprint, insect farming for food and feed with circular economy potential has gained remarkable interest. In this review, we report on the recent research trends on key substrate...
ABSTRACT Inland-based fish farming in Kenya continues to draw enormous financial support by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Development under the Economic Stimulus Programme. The Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity Programme (FFEPP) entails the production of fish in a managed environment in marine and freshwater systems for food and commercial purposes. In-land based pond fish farming has been hampered by low level of fish farming, abandonment of ponds, and inadequate tr...
ABSTRACT Soilless farming of vegetables in greenhouse has become a profitable venture in some parts of the world. A high degree of competence in engineering skills, irrigation techniques and cost reduction is required for its successful operation. In Nigeria, the potential of soilless farming in greenhouses has not received adequate attention. The use of soilless media and appropriate irrigation system to produce marketable tomato in a greenhouse were investigated. Roma VF variety of tomato...
ABSTRACT Agro-forestry has continued to receive increasing attention from researchers and policy makers especially in coffee farming systems but there is lack of sufficient evidence on its role in productivity and profitability of coffee farming in Kenya. There is also lack of empirical evidence on whether factors that influence adoption of shade technology have the same effect on productivity and profitability of coffee. The general objective of the study was to examine the adoption of agro...
ABSTRACT Introduction of cocoa-agroforest in the Gwira Banso forest concession necessitates the following research questions: what evidence is there on the viability (profitability) of the proposed cocoa-agroforest practice? What are the short-tenn and long-term cash flow implications and how suitable are they to the farmers who are dependent on the forestland for their livelihood? How can farmers’ knowledge on industrial use of timber trees, prices of timber trees, production and sale of t...
Abstract Hydroponics, a system of growing crops without soil, has been successfully used to grow crops on a commercial scale. Hydroponics has the potential to fill the gap of low agricultural production in Ghana due to its high efficiency while serving as an environmentally friendly alternative to soil culture. This method of farming has benefitted from new technologies like IoT and machine learning that make it possible to integrate intelligent agents in the management of hydroponic systems ...
ABSTRACT Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is one of the major vegetables grown in Kenya as a commercial crop. It is mainly grown in the open-field under both rain-fed and irrigation production systems. The crop has gained popularity as a cash crop due to declining land sizes as it can be grown on small-scale unlike traditional cash crops like coffee and tea. Since the crop is susceptible to diseases and weather conditions, the country does not have an all year round supply of the produce. Co...
ABSTRACT Food security is when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Foreign income generated from cocoa production serves as the backbone of the economy of Ghana, yet the high poverty prevalence amongst cocoa farming households affect greatly their food security status which in the long run leads to low production outputs. Therefore, this study seeks ...
ABSTRACT Greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions data from large-scale agricultural activities are available. In developing countries, e.g. Kenya, agriculture is dominated by smallholder farming, data on the assessment of possible contributions of smallholder agriculture to GHG emissions and GHG fluxes data from smallholder farming systems in the tropics is scarce. The study area is a 10 square km area also called the ―Lower Nyando Block‖ in Western Kenya. The basin varies in landscapes (low la...
ABSTRACT Sugarcane farming systems can adversely affect soil properties especially total soil organic carbon stocks (TSOCst) and fractions. This study was carried out in Western Kenya sugar zones to assess impacts of tillage systems (Tractor and Oxen ploughing), and plantation ages (continuous mono-cropping system, more than 20 years, 11 ̶ 20 years, 0 ̶ 10 years) on TSOCst and fractions (particulate soil organic carbon, POC, and the mineral associated soil organic carbon, MOC) in three diff...
ABSTRACT Retbiliry indices ore considered to be remonabk md logic wuys to judge the perfirmame of rm electric power tystem ReliabiIi~in dices which m proposed by the IEEE are used ra evaluate the perfmmce of selected distribution.~stemo n the natlonai grid. Ten yems of outage data (1998 - 200 7) from seven selected disi?ibwtl'on systems on the national grid were wed as case studies in this resewch work. A generalized model is developedf or a qsrantimive evalucrti~nof relative indices of the n...
Mechanised agriculture has the potential to supply Nigeria with the export needs, it requires to diversify and close its GDP gap. This potential can be actualised if the rural agricultural farmers adopted the use of mechanised irrigation farming techniques. The wind is widespread in Nigeria and wind-powered irrigation system is a clean and decentralised alternative for providing rural communities with electricity for meeting domestic and irrigation farming power needs in a sustainable way. In...
ABSTRACT Taungya farming is a special arrangement between the forestry department and farmers, which combines the production of both arable and forest tree crops simultaneously on a piece of land. The practice was adopted in Vandeikya Local Government area of Benue State Nigeria, in mid 1950s up to 2000. This study evaluated the method as an option for food and fiber production compared to the traditional farming and forest management practices. Using Stratified random sampling, two sets of q...
ABSTRACT Traditional farming embraces the use of local tools like hoes, jembes, sticks and indigenous farming technology for a wide range of farm operations from land preparation to planting, harvesting, storage and selling the surplus harvests while the impacts of traditional farming include soil degradation, soil erosion and others. This study was therefore to assess the degree of traditional farming and its impacts on soil degradation in Kasemeni division in Kwale County, Kenya. The study ...