A strip of lush green crop grown on the shoreline of Masinga Dam on the border of Embu and Machakos counties creates a beautiful spectacle in the semi-arid area.
From afar, one may think that the crops are on one big farm. But despite the uniformity in growing one crop – chickpea, the strip is divided into smaller farms.
Meshack Nganga, one of the farmers growing crops on the shores of the dam, says theirs is a coping strategy.
“We have learnt to cope with the drought which has intensified in recent years by growing chickpea. Normally, I grow tomatoes under irrigation on my farm here but once the dam water level recedes, I switch to chickpea.”
Residents, thus, grow chickpeas in July and August so that they are ready for harvesting by November when the dam swells.
“We grow chickpeas when irrigation becomes expensive due to low water levels in the dam. The legume requires minimal rainfall or water to mature and is lucrative in the market,” says Nganga.
Known scientifically as Cicer Arietinum, chickpea is widely grown in the Masinga and Yatta regions in Machakos County where it is the cash crop of choice for hundreds of smallholder farmers.
It comes in two varieties namely Desi and Kabuli. The former is the most common. Its seeds are small, dark brown and with a distinctive thick and rough coat.
The thick coat makes it hard to cook compared to Kabuli, which is bigger, round, cream and has a smooth seed coat.
“Although both varieties of chickpea do well in this region, we prefer Desi because it yields relatively more. Besides that, Kabuli is susceptible to attacks by birds when it matures,” explains Nganga.
Chickpea, which locally is known as saina or njugu mawe, is farmed just as green grams.
Planting starts with preparing the seedbed. Agronomists recommend using rippers and harrowing to make the seedbed fine before enriching it with organic manure.
“We plant chickpea in shallow holes which are 10-15cm apart and in rows which are 30cm apart,” says Nganga, who intercrops the legume with maize on a three-acre farm.
Although it does not require much rainfall, chickpea thrives in a cool climate. It does well in black cotton soils, which are known to retain moisture for quite some time.
Rosalia Kavini winnows chickpea at Ithekethini Village in Machakos County on August 22, 2022. The high-value legume thrives in the arid region.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
They are susceptible to attacks by pod borer, a notorious pest, which also infects pigeon peas.
The pest, which starts as a moth before it changes to a caterpillar, damages the pods, causing heavy losses.
To manage the pest, chickpea farmers spray their crops regularly.
However, agronomists recommend a combination of regular spraying and the setting up of pheromone traps to arrest the moths before they turn to pod borers.
Chickpea is susceptible to blight and wilt, diseases which are easy to control through regular spraying. They mature three months after planting.
Harvesting chickpea is labour intensive. It involves uprooting the plant once the leaves wither and turn brown.
“Threshing chickpea is taxing as it entails driving a tractor on the crop severally. Alternatively, we use an oxen-drawn cart which is laden with at least two drums of water to make several rounds on the crop followed by winnowing,” says Nganga.
All the yield goes to the outside market as few in the local communities eat chickpeas, which they regard as a famine crop.
“When I was growing up, we used to boil chickpea and use it for making stews and githeri. No one eats chickpea anymore; we associate the legume with poverty,” says Rosalia Kavini, a farmer in Ithekethini village in Matuu, who has been cultivating chickpea for decades.
In a good season, Nganga harvests 10 90kg bags from his three acres.
The average yields are blamed on recycled seeds. However, farmers compensate by intercropping the legume with pigeon peas and maize.
James Kyalo, who runs a cereals’ store at Masinga Township, says a kilo of chickpea fetches up to Sh200.
The Indian community offers the biggest market for the legume. Buyers go for the produce from farms.
Desi chickpea is de-hulled, split and ground into flour which goes into making delicacies such as bhajia.
Chickpea is a source of protein, carbohydrates, iron, zinc and fibre. It is also grown in drier parts of Bomet and Nakuru counties.
Beyond its nutritional value, chickpea is of huge economic importance in the semi-arid area.
Patrick Nzioka, an official of the Machakos chapter of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says it is the second most economically important pulse in the region after green grams.
“During August and September harvesting periods, tens of middlemen flock to the farms and cereal stores in Masinga and Yatta where chickpea is the main cash crop,” he observes.
Ganga Rao, a pulses breeder at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), notes that chickpea is a good candidate for crop rotation because of its nitrogen-fixing properties.
“Chickpea can do well in wheat growing zones. After harvesting wheat, farmers should grow chickpea to enrich the soils and cut disease cycles,” he said.
