22 hours Ago By KNA1
Kajiado is likely to experience near to above-average rainfall in the South, Central and part of the West Sub-counties, while near to below-average is expected in the East, North and the North part of West Sub-counties according to the weather-based advisory for March, April, and May (MAM) 2025. The advisory, developed by a team of scientists from the Kenya Meteorological Department, indicates that the long rains will commence in the fourth week of March to the first week of April, while the cessation would be from the third to the fourth week of May. Rainfall distribution both in time and space is poor to fair.
The peak of the rains is expected to be in late April for most places and occasional storms are likely to be experienced in some parts of the county during the season. The temperature forecast indicates that warmer-than-average temperatures were expected over the whole county with increased probabilities. “This is expected to have both positive and negative impacts, which are associated with climate change that lead to a range of significant impacts, resulting to more frequent and intense heatwaves, disruptions to ecosystems and biodiversity, increased risk of droughts, agricultural yield losses, rising sea levels, impacts on human health and potential economic damage due to extreme weather events,” stated part of the advisory.
Farmers in areas that will receive near-normal to above-normal rainfall are advised to plant appropriate crop varieties, construct water retention ditches and cut-off drains, put up soil conservation structures in their farms to prevent soil erosion, have water harvesting mechanisms like tanks, establish proper food storage facilities to avoid post-harvest losses, plant cover crops and embrace pest management techniques. Farmers living in areas that will experience near-normal to below-normal rains are advised to plant drought-tolerant crops, embrace water-efficient irrigation systems, embrace kitchen gardening technologies to effectively utilise the little amount of water available and ensure effective crop protection practices to manage incidences of emerging pests and diseases in crop production. Livestock farmers in areas that will receive near to above-normal rainfall are advised to practice pasture harvesting and conservation, install soil and water conservation structures like gabions, manage invasive weeds like ipomoea and implement grazing management plans, as there will be good pasture conditions.
They are also advised to source breeding stock, implement breeding programmes and undertake livestock restocking. For the livestock farmers in areas that will experience near-normal to below-normal rains, they are advised to upscale water harvesting, repair and renovate water handling facilities like water pans, boreholes and water tanks, and to fence and paddock their lands for effective pasture management. They are also advised to control breeding and destock, as there will likely be reduced livestock performance.
According to the report, increased incidences of livestock diseases are also expected; thus, farmers are advised to vaccinate and deworm their animals in addition to controlling movement and reporting disease outbreaks to relevant authorities as soon as they occur..
