Hydroponics performance evaluation report : hydroponics innovation in Kenya

Many challenges hinder the prosperity of agricultural activities in developing countries, considering that it is the backbone of economic activity and contributes to food security and nutrition in most of these countries. The environmental problems caused by anthropogenic activities, such as deforestation and desertification, are increasing to meet food security needs through clearing to provide for arable land for cultivation. They are further exacerbated by the high population growth rate. Arable land loss is estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate. Agriculture also uses about 70 percent of the planet?s available freshwater. This scenario is unsustainable in the long-run and requires renewed focus on efficient water use. Although 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, only 52 percent of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation.

Additionally, there are challenges of soil farming, including prevalence of pests and diseases; reliance on unpredictable rainfall; dependance on pesticides, fertilizers, and manure; and more labor hours and days weeding, among others. Hydroponics technology counters this by using less water, increasing the yield, using minimal space, reducing the cost of the value chain from the input, onfarm production, post harvest, and marketing. Hydroponics reduces incidences of pests and diseases that are common with conventional soil farming.

An impact evaluation of Hydroponics Africa was carried out, and 50 farmers were interviewed. Farmers were grouped into clusters and later randomized. Probability proportion to size (PPS) procedure was used to ensure that the probability of a cluster being selected was proportional to the size of the ultimate cluster, giving larger clusters a greater probability of selection and smaller clusters a lower probability. Systematic and simple random sampling techniques were used to identify the 50 sampled farmers. The interviews were recorded and, with the consent of the farmers, photos were taken.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents interviewed were female, and 22 percent were male. Most of the farmers have not diversified their income, with the majority (50 percent) only having one source of income, 26 percent with two sources of income, and two percent with three sources of income. Females have an average of 0.4361 acre, whereas males have an average of 1.2617 acres. This is typical of African culture where men own more land than women. The average years of experience of hydroponics technology is 0.91 years, with little disparity when disaggregated by gender. Females and males have had the technology for 0.84 and 1.16 years, respectively. The average age of the respondents is 45 years. The correlation between age and experience, though positive, is very low at 0.01.

Farmers are spending less with the introduction of hydroponics technology. Before, the average amount spent in agricultural activity was Ksh. 21,297 per year. These costs include, but are not limited to, fertilizers, pesticides, water, labor, storage, and transportation. However, with the introduction of hydroponics, the average cost is Ksh.11,102 per year. The huge disparity is attributed to significant reduction of input supplies, such as pesticides, fertilizers, manure, reduced labor costs in weeding, pruning, and labor hours/days.

The majority of farmers engaging in hydroponics use it for subsistence with little or no surplus for sale. The main value chain includes kale (sukuma wiki), spinach, local vegetable (kansira), local vegetable african nightshade (managu), and Indigenous Amaranthus (terere). The few engaged in commercialization reported improved household income. The majority are continuing with the hydroponics due to the benefits associated with the technology, such as reduced water use, involvement of women, increased crop yields, the ability to decide when to plant and which crops to plant, and the ability to diversify the crops.

For the success of the technology, there needs to be more distribution centers, training centers, technical support from the innovators, follow up to ensure sustainability of the technology, and increase in the percentage of success and uptake.