A recently introduced fodder growing technology is fast rising in the country, offering farmers year round supply of nutritious green fodder, grown for just eight days and producing up to 50 kgs of the fodder in a 20 by 10 feet space, enough to feed 20 mature cows or 120 goats all year round.
Dubbed hydroponics technology for its ability to grow fodder and other crops without the soil, the project has been hailed as a revolutionary way of farming coming at a time when land is continually becoming limited thanks to population pressure and the ever rising cost of commercial feeds that is locking hundred of farmers from accessing the much needed feed.
Though having been in existence for the last 50 years in the world, the country is just warming up to the technology with majority of the over 2million livestock farmers yet to try it. The technology entails the germination of seeds in nutrient rich solutions instead of soil to produce a grass and root combination that is very high in nutrition.
When Peter Mwangi ventured into dairy farming two years ago, his biggest headache was the high prices of animal feeds. He had bought three Friesian cows for Sh300,000 and the high cost of feeds was quickly dashing his hopes of turning the dairy farm into a money spinner.
"I used to spend almost Sh60,000 monthly to buy commercial feeds from other dairy farmers. I did not have enough land to invest in livestock feeds," said Mr Mwangi.
After consultations and networking with experts, Mr Mwangi, 38, was introduced to a new technology of growing fodder crops that takes four days to mature.
"It's one and a half month since I was introduced to this new technology by a friend. My three cows have increased milk production. I now feed them with less commercial feeds hence saving on cost. The hydroponic technology is cheap to start and easy to run for every farmer," said Mr Mwangi.
He says milk production has increased by five litres every day per cow. Mr Mwangi says he now gets 40 litres of milk and makes about Sh180,000 a month.