James Karuga
James Karuga is an award winning journalist based in Nairobi Kenya. He is passionate covering issues on green energy, agriculture, climate change, entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation in Eastern Africa. Reuters, Spore Magazine, Business Daily Africa, Mindsky, NextBillion, How We Made it in Africa, UNIDO’s Making It Magazine, are some publications he has written for. Karuga also does video coverage of East Africa youth in agriculture for Agribusiness TV. He holds a degree in Computing Information Systems from London Metropolitan University.
From this author
In Northern Upper East Ghana, a water conservation technology is enabling about 400 smallholder farmers from 10 communities to farm in dry seasons. As a result they are now getting at least two crop seasons annually as opposed to one, after implementing the PAVE irrigation Technology which harvests flood and rain water, and stores it in underground aquifers where it lasts for up to 180 days.
In Nigeria a young green energy innovator has developed an electric mini-grid powered by biogas made from organic waste, and the power it’s generating, is benefitting 550 people of Rije village in Abuja. Dubbed Waste2Watt, this first of its kind renewable energy project in the country, is generating 20 kilowatts of power, after converting agricultural and communal organic waste into electricity, by use of a biogas digester. The electric power generated is then distributed via a mini-grid to the villagers.
In Kenya, a solution to counter the menace of fruit flies rampant among small holder farmers is now available. Dubbed the Fruit Fly Mania, this protein bait is made from brewer’s yeast was developed through the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology research, and is being commercially produced for farmers, by Kenya Biologics.
In Kenya’s semi arid regions grappling with climate change, rural communities are turning their attention to growing the drought tolerant melia volkensii (mukau) tree. This fast maturing hardwood tree dubbed the mahogany of the dry lands, has many uses, and its timber is lucrative and in demand. A hectare of mature melia volkensii trees, can earn a farmer over Kshs3 million (USD $30,000) and harvesting can begin at 10 years in ideal weather conditions.