NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - More than 2,000 farmers in Kenya have doubled their yields and reduced the amount of money they used to spend on food during drought after adopting an environmentally friendly farming technology.

Ecological farming, a technology that discourages the use of chemicals and genetic engineering in the farm, enriches the soil by ensuring nutrients and water remains in the soil, according to the Institute of Culture and Ecology (ICE).

Josephine Ndambu, an agronomist working in Eastern Kenya says ecological farming encourages farmers to adopt natural approaches that increase their yields such as agroforestry, soil and water conservation, and planting in enriched pits known as Zai pits.

For instance, she says, when it rains, Zai pits can tap the surface runoff and store it for a long time, enabling the plants to survive prolonged stretches when there is no rainfall. They can also tap top soil being washed away.

“The objective of Zai pits is to break the earth pan, conserve water and enable utilization of manure,” explains Ndambu. “They have high and assured yields and can be used for over three years.”

Peter Mutiso has reason to smile after the technology came to his village. When drought struck, he would spend at least $2 (Ksh. 200) every day to buy food for his family.

After adopting the Zai Pit technology at his one and half acre farm in 2014, he can now harvest more than four 90 kilogramme bags of maize where he could get none.

“This is enough to feed my family up to the next harvest,” says the farmer from Eastern Kenya. “Sometimes I can even sell a bag of the harvest to supplement the family income.”

A report by Greenpeace Africa indicates that the ability of farmers in East Africa to produce food is on the decline due to climate change.

In rural households struggling to feed themselves, even small changes in climate patterns could destroy smallholder farmers’ soil and water security, argues the Building Resilience in East African Agriculture report.

“It is important for rural farmers to learn from each other about ecological farming that uses successful strategies that meets local and domestic needs of different communities,” says Iris Maertens, the interim communication officer at Greenpeace Africa, Food for Life campaign.