By Murimi Gitari
BORN and raised in the precincts of Kenya’s central region, Daniel Mugo Magondu proud himself as a successful BT Cotton farmer and a champion for agricultural biotechnology through the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology – Kenya Chapter by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
After having dedicated his 17 diligent years in service to the Kenyan government, Daniel Mugo Magondu took an early retirement and embarked on a career in farming. He mostly cultivates maize and BT cotton – a genetically modified variety that has an inbuilt mechanism to protect itself from pests, cotton bollworm, diseases and drought traits. Due to his venture in cotton farming he was elected as the chairman of the Kirinyaga District Cotton Farmers Co-Operative Society in the year 2006.
In this capacity, he led the resurgence of cotton cultivation in Kirinyaga, now a county. By 2008, his commitment and expertise were recognised as he was elected to represent Central Kenya’s cotton farmers in the Cotton Development Authority where he served as a director until 2013, when the cotton sub-sector underwent amalgamation with other government entities to form Agriculture and Food Authority.
Mr Magondu says that the genetically modified cotton has clean planting seeds with germination being 85 to 95 percent. He further says that before they could apply pest control applications for more than 12 times in the conventional cotton but now that has been reduced to three times in a season. This means there is saving of cost in terms of pest control. The BT cotton also matures in five months after planting compared to 9-10 months for the conventional cotton varieties.
“I used to get 300 to 500 kilogrammes of the conventional cotton in an acre when well attended to but with the BT cotton, I am able to harvest more than 1.2 tonnes on the same size of land. I doubt there is any farmer who will agree to go to the conventional cotton farming when the modern agricultural biotechnology is producing more, saving on cost and putting more money in farmers’ pockets,” says Mr Magondu.
As a champion of agricultural biotechnology, Mr Magondu has achieved recognition and opportunities that has seen hi excel in the cotton sector. One instance is when he received an opportunity to participate in the Farmers Leadership Course that was done by the Cornell Alliance for Science Training.
This took place in Rock Island, Illinois, USA which equipped him with essential skills in communication, grassroots organizing, power mapping and targeted strategies that he would now use to lead the Society for Biotechnology Faming of Kenya (SOBIFAK) as the Chairperson.
He also participated and represented Kenya in a delegation that had gone for a study tour in India in 2018 organized by ISAA Africenter in collaboration with the South Asia Biotechnology Centre, with the primary focus being on the acquisition of knowledge about insect-resistant Bt cotton. In 2022, his contributions were acknowledged and celebrated on an international stage.
During the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) Day celebration in Accra, Ghana, Mr Magondu was hailed as a biotechnology hero by the African Agricultural Technologies Foundation, further cementing his legacy in the field.