Diaries of a global farmer

I’m riding the public bus again, among the hills, past fertile fields, blooming trees and small villages.

So far I could be describing the bus ride less than a week ago through the Kenyan countryside, but the similarity stops there. No throngs of colourful people crowd the streets and markets of the Swiss villages, no deep potholes cause the bus to drive beside the roads, no young boys herd the cattle we see, no security fences line the yards of the beautiful homes, no groups of unemployed young men lounge on the green grass along the roadside, no garbage.

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Switzerland, in spring, is breathtakingly beautiful, comfortable, safe and tidy. Kenya’s beauty is vibrant, bursting, ‘in your face’, rarely comfortable!

We spent our last days in Africa in Nyakach, Kenya, a small town in the hills east of Lake Victoria. Our African friends told us sobering stories of the violence and killings during post-election violence. They spent many hours on the rocks among the hills, so as not to be found in their house when the gangs would come by.

A different type of gang is making the countryside unsafe now, stealing cattle and anything else of worth. They come at night, in large groups, and if the farmers try to protect their goods, they are killed or brutally beaten. The community has appealed for police protection.

Cattle rustling is also a big problem in northern Kenya, among the nomadic tribes. It is always an issue to some degree, but it seems to be out of control now. Perhaps the election violence has given more courage to the bandits. I feel so sorry for families who have little to begin with, and then their few cows are stolen.

Robert and I were quite amazed at the difference we noticed between the Kenyan and the Zambian small holder farmers. Most of the Kenyan farmers already practice what we were trying to teach in Zambia. They regularly rotate their staple food — maize, with beans or pasture or other crops. Fertilizers are commonly used, as we could see by the dark green foliage. Many of them plow their fields using tractors, renting one if they don’t own it themselves.

Almost all farmers have some livestock — cows, sheep or goats, the manure of which is used as fertilizer. We noticed more diversity of crops and larger tracts of land operated by Africans.

The tea factory that we visited a few weeks ago was one of a bigger network of tea factories owned by small holder farmers. We have heard of successful dairy co-operatives running for some time already managed by Africans. The director of a large Zambian research centre regularly sends prospective Zambian dairy farmers to Kenya to learn from these co-operatives.

What makes Kenyan farmers so much more advanced? Some tell us it is a matter of exposure. Kenya is the hub for many global charities and international NGOs. This affects the whole country.

On our first trip here in 2002, we visited a wheat research station in Njoro, set up by the Canadian International Development Agency. Many of its agriculturalists were trained at universities in Canada. In the meantime Kenya has developed good agriculture training institutes, and their graduates are influencing the whole farming community. It seems in so many ways, Kenya is a generation ahead of Zambia.

The Swiss are a generation ahead of the Kenyans, and a season ahead of the Canadians. The canola fields are blooming a deep lemon, while the Alberta farmers wait for the ground to dry so they can seed. Robert checked for the heads of the barley. It will be heading out in less than a week.

These are winter crops here, seeded August to October, to be harvested in June and July. We can just see the faint rows of sugar beets growing, and the farmers are planting the last of the corn.

Not all is comfortable in Switzerland either, though. I will take you to visit some farmers with me in the next few weeks.