This archive report was first published on 11 January 2020.
On a 10-acre farm in Nyandarua County, a team from Seeds of Gold visited Tabor-Hill Farm, an agriculturally rich zone west of the Aberdare ranges. The farm is about 20 kilometers from Nyahururu town on the Ol Kalou road.
Philip King'ori, a manager who has been on the farm for over a decade, received the team and took them around the compound. The farm has a diverse range of crops, including chickens, ducks, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, vegetables, and various types of fruits, some of which were ready for harvesting.
One of the unique features of the farm is the netting house technology, a new method of growing fruits, specifically indigenous pears, with minimal supervision. The net house protects the fruits against birds and wild animals, ensuring maximum yields at minimal costs.
According to King'ori, the net house is a safe method of fruit production that promotes clean gardening, helping to control weeds. The farm uses organically made pesticides from bitter herbs that grow on the farm, an initiative that has greatly promoted organic farming.
King'ori and his team use nets to protect the fruits from pigeons, doves, and other birds. The net house allows them to see the fruits that are ready from a distance, making it easier to harvest them. King'ori credits the net house with working miracles, enabling the farm to produce bumper harvests every season.
King'ori came up with the idea of the net house around 2010. He erected a wooden structure and reinforced an ordinary net from the inside. The net was then insulated with wire mesh from the outside, followed by wooden pillars that stood two meters apart. The net house allows for visibility, allowing light to penetrate for at least eight hours a day, ensuring the fruits flourish.
King'ori notes that spraying chemicals is not necessary on the farm, as most of the fruits and vegetables, except tomatoes, are not attacked by aphids. This saves the farm money that would be used to buy herbicides and pesticides.
The farm receives many visitors, and King'ori says that up to 50 people can fit into one net house at a time. The net house has 35 trees, each growing at an area of six by four centimeters. The pear fruit trees are covered with foliage that protects them against cold during the rainy season, which runs from April to October.
The farm is also used as a resource center for learners in Nyandarua and the surrounding counties. King'ori says that a class of 50 can be allowed into the net house per learning session, and they do not charge the children and their teachers.
King'ori notes that it takes only three months for the pears to be ready. Flowering is usually between September and October, when the rainfall has generally declined. From January to February, the fruits attain full maturity, waiting to ripen. Ripening takes around a week, and the fruits are then harvested and packaged.
King'ori says that only 20 kilograms of organic manure and a kilo of DAP and NPK are applied on the land during the flowering period. This is done four years from the time of planting the trees. Bitter weeds are grown around the net house to repel insects and other pests. King'ori says that the entire plantation is usually left undisturbed until the flowering period.
Nelly Nekesa, a scientist at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, notes that net houses can be used to protect tender plants and fruits in the bed. She adds that for those involved in agribusiness, it maximises yields by protecting plants from natural and artificial elements such as pests, diseases, and the vagaries of weather.
However, Nekesa notes that setting up such a structure is not affordable for many small-scale farmers. The farmer requires expertise and expensive raw materials such as nets, bamboo stems, and wire mesh. It is also not easy to set up such houses on a vast piece of land.
