The possibility of the southeastern drylands of Kenya providing enough food for the region and more for export is becoming a reality with every adoption of modern farming technology and more so, irrigation. This was said by Kalonzo Musyoka, the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya on Saturday 19 November 2011 during the commissioning of the Kabaa Irrigation Scheme. He encouraged farmers and other service providers to work closely with out KARI, a key innovator of such technologies, to enhance agricultural productivity.

The Scheme will offer high value crops including legumes such as beans which play an important role in crop rotation in the green maize market driven crop production. Farmers can grow dry beans as a seed crop on contract basis from seed companies. The other option is production of French beans for processing and export. Farmers showed a lot of interest in growing of canning beans. [more....]