Flourishing vegetables and fruits welcome a visitor to Bisanadi Cultural Village in Kinna Ward giving the impression of a model farm tucked in a region where agronomy is regarded as an alien concept. From beans to green grams, tomatoes to capsicum, bulb onions to orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, an apiary and two fishponds, they all proclaim the success of this farm.
At another corner is pawpaw and mango fruit trees which the chairlady of this cultural center says have waiting buyers. “There is a ready market for the pawpaw fruits once they are ready for harvest. We entered into a contractual agreement and the buyer will dispatch a vehicle to ferry them to Meru Town,” says Makai Mamo, the chairlady.
Incidentally, farming activity has been going on for barely five years but the transformation on a previously bare piece of land is enormous. “This centre began as a cultural centre targeting tourists visiting the neighbouring Meru National Park who would spend time at our cottages. The visitors would be entertained with Borana traditional songs and dances as well as educate them about our culture and traditions,” explains Mamo.
Later, the group comprising 18 women and seven men decided to diversify into agriculture to boost their income and produce food for their guests. “At first, we faced obstacles practicing agriculture since we have been brought up as pastoralists. Many of us had little knowledge about crop farming even holding a hoe or a panga (machete) was a challenge,” says Mamo with a chuckle. Eventually, the group overcame the challenges and today they are competent farmers and experienced agronomy trainers.
“Each of us has specialized in a specific crop, making him or her expert. Some are good at taking care of the fish and are in charge of our two ponds; one for tilapia and the other one holding catfish,” she says. The group is keen on growing high-value crops like fleshed orange sweet potatoes, capsicum and tomatoes which have high demand in the region. Additionally, they are exploring ways of reducing production costs with the latest investment being the manufacture of fish food through the rearing of Black Soldier Flies (BSF) whose maggots contain more protein, fat and micro-nutrients than normal houseflies, and are easily dried and stored.
Malka Bisanadi Farm has been identified by MID-P for its linking and learning programmes that will culminate in the establishment of 11 demo farms to act as learning points for other farmers across the four wards. During a recent visit to the farm by representatives from the six Wards facilitated by MID-P through the SCORE project, the participants were taken through the challenges in agribusiness.
“Just like pastoralism, farming has its own challenges but once you overcome them, there is a big reward. Some of the challenges include lack of water for irrigation and unreliable markets. However, with proper planning, they can be overcome where a farm could be established near a water source like a river or a borehole. For assurance of ready markets, specializing in non-bulky high-value crops is the secret,” advised the charlady. She added that the farm utilizes a nearby permanent river for irrigation while they apply Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or organic farming where there is minimal or zero use of chemical pesticides.
Similar visits to model farms have also taken place in Garba Tulla and in Burat Ward. In Burat, farmers’ representatives of the four wards (Chari, Cherab, Garba Tulla and Kinna) visited Mary Mulwa’s fruit farm sitting on a quarter acre of land but with more than ten varieties of fruits.