Is there potential for integrated soil fertility management use in Machakos County, Kenya?

Chronic food insecurity in Machakos and other semi arid areas in Kenya could be attributed to climate variability but mainly to soil nutrient decline. A lot of resources have been directed to smallholder farmers in drylands in the past but crop yields have remained low compared to surrounding on-station and commercial farms. Studies have credited these to use of blanket recommendations that disregards diverse adaptive power and agricultural systems of individual household, hence need for a farm specific approach such as Integrated Soil Fertility Management approach (ISFM). Despite ISFM’s novelty, few studies have been conducted to establish causes for its low usage. As such, a study was conducted in Mwania watershed in the Machakos County in 2015 to establish ISFM potential use by assessing the awareness and extent of ISFM use such as in-situ water structures, improved seed variety and micro dosing of fertilizers. A well delineted watershed of 5-10 km2 with 175 sampled (Households) was used in the study. Data were collected through a participatory survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Results revealed that 85%, of the respondents were aware of improved seed varieties. In situ water harvesting and micro dosing were reported by 90 and 80% respectively. However, low adoption was majorly attributed to climate variability (89.7%), followed by high initial cost (80.6%) while small land holdings and intensive labor force were reported by 42.3% and 24.6% of the respondents, respectively. There is huge potential of ISFM usage, if only initial cost and labor demand were addressed adequately.