Farmers across Bungoma county and Kenya at large have been encouraged to consider practicing agroforestry as part of their farming.
Speaking on Monday, June 6, 2022, during the World Environmenta Day celebrations at Kimaeti in Bungoma County which was themed “ONLY ONE EARTH,” the director of water, tourism and natural resources in Bungoma County government Robert Sawa said that farmers should embrace tree planting for it does not only improve the beauty of nature but also helps in controlling the climate change.
“The global warming is mainly caused by us as individuals, we emit a lot of gases into the atmosphere and this results to the earth warming and it is only the trees which cool down those temperatures but it is very unfortunate that instead the trees are being scrapped off because in the last few decades the curve has really gone down,” he said.
He went ahead to note that the percentage of trees in the country is very low compared to previous years and therefore asking the farmers to plant many trees and also suggesting that they can focus on income generating trees like fruit trees, Bamboo, Blue gum and many others that can generate income in different ways.
His sentiments were echoed by Beth Omae, the zonal coordinator for Rift-Western Kenya zone for PELUM Kenya who said that it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of the earth for there is no other alternative earth.
Omae went ahead to note that as PELUM Kenya, they encourage farmers to practice organic farming by using organic fertilizers and pesticides and that most of those organic fertilizers generate from the trees citing the need of having many trees around.
The celebration was crowned by the plantation of close to 2000 Grevillea which is normally done on crop land for its rooting system doesn’t affect the growth of the plants that are grown under it.
