By Wanjiku Bridget Linet
I had not known that agriculture could be this interesting as well as a source of employment and income until March 31, this year when my school’s business club visited Amiran Kenya.
Madam Catherine Riungu and Elija Karu from Horticultural News had joined us and this interested us even more, since most of us had only heard about them from our teacher, Mr Njeru, who spotted them through the internet when he came across www.hortinews.co.ke.
He contacted Ms Riungu who, in turn, arranged with Amiran Kenya who were kind enough to host us at their offices and small-scale greenhouse demonstration near JKIA, Nairobi.
We were ushered to Amiran Kenya and issued with some brochures which had information about greenhouse farming. Miss Doris who was our guide told us about Amiran and greenhouse farming and answered all our questions.
As a saying goes, seeing is believing, so she took us to sample green houses there at Amiran. On getting there, I could not believe that I was still in Embakasi. I thought I was in a dream, wandering somewhere in Mount Kenya regions but the plants before me were even healthier than those in the highlands. Inside the greenhouse one could not help caressing the juicy tomatoes and other vegetables.
Greenhouse farming is easy! To start with, as Madam Doris explained, one needs to order for an Amiran Farmer’s Kit which consists of a greenhouse, drip irrigation system, collapsible water tank, farmers sprayer, Gold Medal seeds, nursery set, fertilizers, agrochemicals, health and safety kit, training and agro support package. This shows that the farmer needs not buy anything else.
One may wonder why the drip irrigation? At least I have the answer. It is because it is well regulated hence saves on water and avoids wastage. Since the drip is at the base of every plant, it also controls clogging hence controlling weeds and what about their seedlings? I learnt that they had a special germination medium called the coco pit which is part of the nursery set. The coco pit is gotten from coconut husks and since it is very light, it provides the best germination medium. I also learnt that the greenhouse farming did not require a large piece of land. It only requires an eighth of an acre and this is quite available even in towns.
After two hours session it was time to leave but we could not help peeing into the greenhouse to at least get a last glimpse of the juicy tomatoes and the health vegetables once more.
I learnt also that any career could land you to agriculture be it journalism or business, and I would urge students not to look down upon Agriculture
Wanjiku Bridget Linet is a student at Nguviu Girls High School.
I also learnt that any career could land you to agriculture be it journalism or business, and I would urge students not to look down upon Agriculture.
