Bishop Titus Masika is a farmer and businessman in Kinyaata in Yatta, Machakos County.
Under his organization dubbed Christian Impact Mission, he keeps livestock, rears fish and he runs a business aside from practicing mixed farming.
Here is Masika’s story as told by WoK.
In his farm, Masika practices moist gardening, which eliminates plants’ dependency on weather partners ensuring continued harvests.
In fact, while practicing moist gardening, a farmer only water their crops once every month.
Using the method, Masika has planted different crops such as ginger, onions and arrowroots which are thought to only grow in wet areas.
“We planted arrowroots, people know that they only grow in wet areas. However, they do well here, the first time we planted them, we got very big arrowroots,” Masika added.
Masika also has an improvised charcoal cooler which he uses to preserve farm products after harvesting.
“Before the farm produce are taken to the market, they are stored here because if they stay outside, they will loose water,” he said.
He also has three water pans in his farm measuring at least 24 feet deep each which he uses to water his crops.
“The mother dam is used for domestic use; we purify it,” Masika said.
The Bishop also rears improved-kienyeji chicken, about 1,000 of them, and he also has a land where he he has grown food for the poultry.
“In our one acre rule, you use what the environment has including for the birds. In so doing, you reduce the cost of inputs. I used to keep broilers and it would cost up to 85% in inputs,” he added.
Masika also keeps ten dairy cows in his farm producing up to 200 litres of milk per day, adding that he feeds the animals with organic feeds.
“Again, we are encouraging organic feeding, before they’re being milked, they’re served with fodder which we grow here,” he noted.
Masika also keeps rabbits whose droppings are used to feed catfishes and tilapia fishes which he keeps in his subdivided pond.
“We tried to introduce fish farming in Ukambani but it nearly failed because this area is water deficient and the system we were trained is where we replace the water to reduce the algae,” he sald.
Due to water deficiency in the area, the farmer draws algae water then he purifiers it and returns it to the pond.
“The rabbits feed the fish and a few other supplements that we grow here. That’s the whole ecosystem working together,” Masika added.
Bakery
Masika also runs a bakery dubbed, Yatta Bread, where they make bread enriched with orange fleshed sweet potatoes.
According to Ann who is in charge of the bakery operations, they wanted to make bread that was different from the rest by the time they started the bakery.
They also wanted local farmers to benefit from sweet potatoes by growing and later selling them to the bakery.
Ann also explained that they wanted to create employment for young people who are skilled in the line of baking.
They also have a charcoal cooler for the bakery where they keep the sweet potatoes when they get them from the farmers.
“We process the orange fleshed sweet potatoes which is rich in Vitamin A… We wash the potatoes then chip then into small pieces and take them to the solar dryer and mill them into flour and use it to mix with otht ingredients,” she said.
The bakery produces 5,000 blocks of bread everyday, which are distributed in Yatta and its environs.
