It hasn't rained on John Mwema's farm in over a month. But on his one-acre piece of land stand thousands of green maize plants.
"I grow baby corn," said Mwema. "It is a type of corn that is three to four times quicker to harvest and uses less water than regular corn."
Farmers in the eastern Kenyan village of Ngoliba and across the country are increasingly faced with water scarcity. Some 2.7 million people across half of Kenya's 47 counties have been affected by drought, which the government recently declared a national disaster.
A growing number of farmers in Kenya are switching to growing baby corn – an immature ear that is harvested early and typically eaten whole - as a way around unreliable rainfall.
While normal maize takes more than four months to mature, often drying up during that period due to a lack of rain, baby corn takes less than two months before it can be harvested, explained Mwema.
"This means it requires less water, and when there is no rain I just collect water from the nearby river," he said.
Growing Market
Mwema said that thanks to the crop's short growth cycle, he can harvest as much as 7 tonnes of baby corn in eight months, as opposed to only one tonne of normal maize over that period.
But it is attractive prices that keep him growing the crop on his farm. One kilogram fetches him 200 Kenyan shillings (about $2) if sold to outlets like Nakumatt, a nationwide supermarket, and 100 shillings when sold to neighbours buying directly from his farm.
That's much more than the 35 shillings he used to get from local buyers for 1 kg of regular maize.
"Nothing from the crop is wasted," said Mwema, adding that even the green stalks are sold to livestock farmers as fodder.
