By Felix Ochieng Akech
A Nyamira County farmer has turned his waterlogged clay land right into a brick-making enterprise incomes as much as Sh30,000 per firing, and ending years of farm losses on half his tw-acre farm.
Maize, beans and watermelon had repeatedly failed Amos Achok’s farm in Nyamira in its moist and compacted clay soil.
“1 / 4 acre of beans ought to give a minimum of 150 kilos. Right here I harvested about 40 kilos,” he stated. “Seeds would rot, fertilizer disappeared into the mud, and tractors couldn’t even plough correctly. Every season I misplaced between Sh8,000 and Sh10,000.”
However after utilizing among the clay to mould bricks to restore his kitchen, he dried them and “they didn’t crack. Neighbours began asking to purchase some,” he stated. “That’s after I realised this soil was good for one thing in any case.”
He began making the burnt clay bricks utilizing soil dug from marked sections of the farm. Each 1,000 bricks wanted soil from a pit about 5 metres by 4 metres and 1 metre deep, which he then created new and higher soil for.
“I don’t dig randomly. I rotate the pits, and after eradicating the clay, I refill them with crop residues, ash from the kiln, animal manure and topsoil,” Amos stated. “I now use the refilled areas for bananas and napier grass, which do higher than maize on the reclaimed soil.”
To make the bricks, he breaks the clay up, soaks it for one to 2 days in a lined pit, and mixes it by foot till it’s sticky. He then moulds it in picket frames and leaves the bricks to dry within the solar for 5 to seven days earlier than firing.
Amos fires the bricks in a clamp kiln that he builds every time by piling up the unfired bricks with wooden between them and masking the entire pile with mud.
“I put the firewood into channels on the base of the clamp, and the bricks are stacked above it,” he stated. “As soon as lit, the fireplace burns for about 24 hours. I management the airflow utilizing soil and steel sheets to make sure even burning.”
Every firing makes use of about one pickup load of firewood.
“If the fireplace is just too robust, the bricks crack. If it’s weak, they continue to be mushy. It’s a must to monitor it the entire evening,” stated Amos.
After cooling, the bricks promote from the farm at between Sh7,000 and Sh8,000 per 1,000, and he sells to builders, colleges, church buildings and households constructing their very own houses. Most of his patrons gather their bricks for him, whereas bigger orders use employed lorries.
Amos earns income of Sh20,000 to Sh30,000 per firing after deducting the prices of his labour and firewood.
“In comparison with crops, this revenue is predictable,” he stated. “It pays college charges, buys livestock and helps the farm.”
He nonetheless grows crops on the lighter soils, utilizing revenue from bricks to pay for inputs.
“Not all land is for crops,” stated Amos. “This soil failed me as a farmer, however it works as a uncooked materials. Brick-making saved this land from being deserted.”
“Generally the land isn’t ineffective,” Amos stated. “It’s simply meant for one thing else.”
However he stated brick-making should be deliberate fastidiously. “Clay doesn’t seem in a single day, so you could assume long run. When you dig, you could additionally restore.”
