Meet Joyce Mutai
“My dream is to work in contact with farmers in Kenya. It is nice to help them become more aware of how the farming methods they use influence soil health.”
Let’s meet Joyce Mutai, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the SAE group and now works as a consultant for the group. Joyce is from Kenya, and she has a background in General Agriculture and Research Methods. She worked on soil pathology and impacts of agricultural practices on soil health for her PhD at the Colorado State University (USA) and she is currently exploring the effects of agricultural practices on soil health in smallholder farmer systems in Kenya.
How did you get into agricultural research?
“I come from Kenya, which has historically been one of the top exporters of tea produced especially by smallholder farmer households, like my family. Thus, I have always been involved in agriculture. When I started college in Nairobi, I remember my father telling me: « Maybe you should study agriculture since you liked to plant your onions ».”
Have you already seen the effect of your research in the field?
“I am glad that some farmers are now using the simple methods we developed for them and that they are more aware of the reasons behind what they do and of the organisms living in soil, such as beneficial nematodes but also pathogens.”
What are the challenges of your job?
“It can be difficult to change farmers’ views on certain practices. For example, we advised Kenyan farmers to grow maize and beans in two separate rows instead of planting them in the same hole. They followed our advice for a while, until they went back to their usual habits. It is like asking to start eating a new legume because it is more nutritious, but you are used to another. A second challenge is to find methods that work in different locations because there are already huge climatic and social differences between Kenyan towns an hour apart.”
Have you ever met someone that taught you an important lesson during your fieldwork?
“Yes. Once I was visiting some fields which looked the same and had the same crops. Suddenly, I came across a beautiful garden, different from the others. Not only the usual crops were growing, but also different plants like coriander, rosemary, garlic, buckwheat, and onion. The owner told me that he was using these plants as natural pest control and he liked to harvest something every time he was visiting his field. I loved this concept, and I would like to do so in my garden as well.”
If you want to know more about Joyce’s research, visit the external page project website.
