Smart Farming Kenya

02/12/2025

The dry spell is here. Not so good for the farmer who relies on rain-fed agricultural practices. While its debatable whether "we don't need rain. We need water (sic)", there are people who have perfected the art of drilling water and making sure you have it for irrigation and other uses in your farm.

14/03/2025

What farm produce are you harvesting ?
Cost?
We promote you....

23/01/2025

Anyone harvesting Avocados at a pocket friendly rate. Kindly post buyers are waiting.
Clear details please.
Lovely weekend ahead.

18/09/2023

Vuna mahindi mapema kuzuia uharibifu wa mvua ya El Nino ya Octoba. Mahindi yalio kauka vizuri huzuia aflatoxin. Kwa maelezo zaidi piga 0800721741

From KALRO

10/06/2023

Hello Smart farmers market . What's your views on this post? How safe are your produce.

28/10/2022

Yesterday we mentioned that the drillers need to do something called “pump testing” where water from your borehole is pumped for several hours (usually 12-24 hours). From the pump testing, the driller derives data used in compiling a Borehole Completion Record (BCR), which contains vital information that will help you purchase an ideal pump.

The BCR indicates the depth of your borehole, the water yield in cubic meters, the static water level and the pumping water level. In one of the leading pump retailers in this country, you cannot be advised on the ideal pump you have unless you have a BCR.

You will need skilled professionals to install your pump, which comes with a control panel.
Overall, equipping your borehole, including all the accessories (which include drop pipes, drop cables, float switch, airline pipes, electrodes, wellhead and a water meter) may cost an upwards of 150,000. Obviously, you’ll need to have a source of power (mostly three-phase) for your pump to work and this can be the normal electricity from Kenya Power, a generator or solar power. Some people do a hybrid system which guarantees that if one source of power fails, the pump will still be powered by another power source.

As a farmer, you will need to work closely with the team installing the pump to ensure that the delivery tank where water is stored after being pumped is well elevated to serve your irrigation needs.
Overall, though a borehole does not come cheap, it is a great investment particularly for farmers whose intention is to engage in serious agribusiness. Once you have water, failed rains cannot be used as an excuse for not producing enough.

We have in our database borehole drillers, pump retailers and solar-power experts we have done satisfactory business with before. Should you need any leads, DM us and we’ll be happy to share their contacts.

27/10/2022

Borehole Drilling Demystified

As promised, today we identify the borehole drilling process and the associated costs.
Before commencing the actual drilling, there is, what professionals in the industry call “preliminary paper work”. This means that you, the farmer need several permits from government bodies such as the “Water Resources Authority” (WRA) and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). The water company in your locality also need s to issue you with a “no Objection to drill” letter. In Nairobi, the water Company is the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company while in parts of Kiambu, that company would be the Karuri Water and Sewerage Company. NEMA makes an assessment of the impact that your borehole would have on the environment. A denial of a permit by one of the three bodies mentioned above means that your plans to drill a borehole would die on their tracks. You also need to get a geologist to conduct a geological survey to determine the ideal point of drilling based on the depth of the underground water aquifers he/she identifies through whichever tests they carry out.

The costs of the permits and the geological survey ranges from Ksh. 80,000 to 120,000 in different parts of the country

When the actual drilling happens, it only stops when sufficient water yield is attained. It is followed by the installation of casing materials, which can either be metallic or plastic and borehole development where the water is pumped for a minimum 6 hours until it attains clarity. At this point, the drilling rig is ready to move out of your site and allow a pump testing machine to come in. The pump testing process takes a minimum eight hours and is meant to test how much water your borehole yields. Through pump testing, the professionals in the industry are also able to tell how low your borehole water can go after constant pumping and are then able to advice you on the ideal pump to purchase and how deep the pump will be positioned for maximum water yield.

Information obtained from several drillers indicates that the current drilling cost ranges from Ksh. 6,500 to Kshs. 8,000 per metre.
Tomorrow, we discuss pumps and associated costs.

(Photos: Internet)

26/10/2022

Drought periods like the one we are experiencing currently remind farmers of the importance of adequate and dependable water supply for their plants and animals. Basically, Water is life! Without it, there is no guarantee of optimal farm produce.

As indicated yesterday, we are running a series on irrigation. Before we delve into the sources of water, we will briefly highlight the forms of irrigation that you our smart farmer could consider.
Surface Irrigation

This is the cheapest and easiest form of irrigation. One just pours water on the ground and allows it to distribute naturally. However, the effectiveness of this type of irrigation mostly depends on the terrain of your farm. It also runs the risk of water logging for some crops, while others may not get enough water
Drip Irrigation
Here, you lace your farm with drip lines, connect them to a water source. The drip lines drip water directly to the roots of your crops. This form of irrigation is fairly common here in Kenya particularly among people who practice greenhouse farming. It can also be used in open fields. Drip irrigation is relatively cheaper than Sprinklers but a bit costly compared to surface irrigation.
Sprinklers
For this one, water is applied overhead by the sprinklers. The sprinklers can be customized to serve whatever size of the farm that a farmer wants to irrigate. The cost of installing overhead sprinklers depends with whether one wants a basic irrigation system or a more sophisticated one that would cover more surface area of the land.

Tomorrow, we feature one ways of accessing water for irrigation- i.e. borehole, drilling. We will expound on the associated paper work and the costs. In other words, we will tell what you need to drill a borehole, and pump water from the same for your irrigation needs.




(Photo: Internet)

25/10/2022

Rain-fed agriculture is less costly when compared to irrigation. However, its time we started preparing for the eventuality of less rain-based agriculture and more irrigation. The current drought is a proof that we have t wake up to the realities of changing weather patterns.

In the next few days, we will be documenting a series of how farmers can start irrigating their land.
We will be touching on issues of accessing water for irrigatiion
We will also touch on issues of irrigation and associated costs

If you are in the borehole drilling business and construction of dams/ water pans, this platform can benefit from your knowledge.
Same case applies to experts in solar-isation of boreholes, green house construction and

Nyuma
Photo:courtesy

13/10/2022

Good morning smart farmers. What farm produce are you selling?

25/09/2022

Hallo smart famers .. According to a POST by NTV recently KEBS has banned 10 cooking oil brands over health concerns . A small survey to check how this was recieved by majority consumers is very shocking majority say they are guided by the price tag and not Quality.
Just how safe are we in what we produce and consume?
Why are we talking shortcuts that compromise our health?your thoughts please...

Photo : courtesy of NTV.

24/08/2022

Opportunity for Agricultural cash grants take advantage of this ...

The USAID Africa trade and investment programme is a five-year mechanism managed by USAID Bureau for Africa and implemented by DAI under the Prosper Africa Initiative.