Why Kenyan farmers have put vanilla, silkworms on back burner despite gains

For millions of farmers, dry spells dash hopes of good harvest. But Maryanne Karemesi from Kwale is counting gains under the scorching su.

Ms Karemesi, a vanilla farmer in Matuga, says the climatic conditions in the coastal region favour the plant and is upbeat about returns.

“Vanilla plants love the dry spells we experience here as the scorching sun helps in post-harvest curing. Our land is also virgin and less polluted hence the speedy growth. From pollination, it takes vanilla six to eight months to mature and cure,” says Ms Karemesi.

The beach land and low altitude lake regions are perfect for vanilla plantations to flourish as it does in Comoros, Madagascar, and Mukono in Uganda.

Ms Karemesi sells 10-12 centimetre-long vanilla beans at between Sh200 and Sh250 to hotels, together with hibiscus flowers. She is eyeing exports to South Africa and Italy.

“It is like gold; it is very expensive. I started with 20 plants and saw that vanilla is quite rewarding. I now have 200 plants on half an acre and 100 are flowering. I determine the number to harvest depending on the market,” she says.

One vanilla plant produces 80 beans or more depending on care, she said.

The farmer says in the next three years the acreage under vanilla should be 10 acres to meet her export target – more than one tonne per season.

“Friends from South Africa and Italy want me to supply a tonne of cured vanilla, but I will do that after three years when I reach the required capacity. There is a ready market for vanilla,” she says. Vanilla is used for flavouring food, drinks, soaps, ointments, perfumes and incenses.

It is also used in baking and dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, and ice creams, and in desserts, chocolates, cookies, pancake and soft cheese.

Ms Karemesi is among thousands of farmers that the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) is targeting to increase production of orphaned crops and agricultural products that attract premium prices in export markets. They include vanilla, silkworms, palm tree and specialty teas.

There is a great potential in vanilla farming, says Elizabeth Kimani, an officer at Kalro.
Kalro has launched programmes to increase vanilla seedlings, which are scarce, using tissue culture technology. The move is expected to attract more farmers in hot and humid areas like the Coast, lake regions and parts of western Kenya to take up the business.

The vanilla seedlings are taken to stations in Matuga in Mombasa and Kibos.

“Because of the climatic specifications required for faster maturity, farmers in highland areas would need to plant the crop in greenhouses,” Ms Kimani says.

At the recent Nairobi International Trade Fair, Kalro exhibited value-added products made from tea, palm tree, vanilla, sugarcane, and silk worms.

Kelvina Asaali, a silk farmer and member trainer at Kakamega Forest Silk and Honey Market, is one of the few Kenyans doing sericulture — the rearing of silk worms.

She hopes to cash in on the growing demand in the international market for silkworm products although some farmers in western Kenya are reluctant to embrace silkworm farming, saying they “cannot deal with caterpillars.”

“Sericulture does not require huge tracts of land, but farmers prefer the conventional maize farming despite the growing export markets for silkworm products,” she says.

Unlike most farmers who struggle to find markets for their produce, the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) buys dry cocoons from farmers and exports them.

A kilogramme of grade A dry cocoons goes for Sh600; grade B fetches Sh500 while Sh325 is the price of grade C after every month of harvesting, says Ms Asaali. Dry cocoons earn more than wet ones.

READ: Icipe seeks to commercialise silk farming across Kenya

At the Kakamega Forest silk market, Ms Asaali says a farmer can harvest about 10 kilogrammes of dry cocoons or even more depending on care.

Returns from cocoons and silk are four and 10 times, respectively, more profitable than major export commodities from Kenya such as vegetables, coffee and tea, says Dr Muo Kasina of Kalro’s field entomology department.

Returns further multiply when silk is processed into textiles or medical products and cosmetics. Fabric weaving from one acre of silk production can earn Sh494,000 annually.

“Dry cocoons fetch higher prices because they are long lasting. Grade B wet cocoons go for Sh300 while dry cocoons of the same grade fetch Sh655. Grade C fetches the lowest market prices at Sh250 and Sh535 wet and dry respectively,” said Dr Kasina.

Unreelable wet silk cocoon goes for Sh200 while dry ones are sold at Sh415.

The current acreage of silk worm farming in Kenya stands at 250 acres and it is practised mainly in western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and central regions by smallholder groups.

Annually, Kenya produces little over two metric tonnes of dried cocoons against a capacity of 11,000 metric tonnes.

Global raw silk production is decreasing, opening a window for farmers to cash in on the high demand.

Kalro is training farmers on sericulture, but expansion of the business has remained low, said Dr Kasina, who is also a practising economic entomologist.

“The single most reason of the wanting production in Kenya has been lack of research on sericulture. Research is an important support component for silk farming without which we cannot do much.”

The machines used for silk-making are also old hence poor quality production.

The silk cocoons buying centres established by the government in Makueni, Kitui, Bungoma,Taita Taveta, Homabay, Meru, Embu, Thika and Naivasha collapsed in the 1990s due to lack of funds.

“Besides the inadequate supply of silk, weak marketing channels and skills continue to be an issue. We also lack quality silk products for the export market and that is why at Kalro we are researching and adding value to silk products to fetch farmers higher market price as we encourage them to continue with farming,” says Dr Kasina.

To achieve this, Dr Kasina said farmers are now being asked to increase activity by growing the mulberry plant.

The worms thrive on the mulberry tree as they only feed on the leaves. The government had earlier pledged to pump in Sh700 million into the sericulture research centre to catalyse the growth of the industry.

The production of mulberry had previously been anchored in animal forage feeds, but farmers are now being trained on how to plant mulberry for sericulture.

In August, Kalro held a National Silk Day where farmers and other investors were sensitised on the growth of the industry. Experts project increased interest in the business due to significant investment in the sub-sector.

“They now know they have to grow mulberry, which cannot grow on its own, in order to produce silk and not just for forage. The plants have to be fully domesticated to produce the main silkworm (mulberry silkworm),” says Dr Kasina.

Tropical zones

At the Kandara centre in Thika, experts are producing silkworm eggs and training farmers, who can also buy mulberry seeds at Sh5 from Kalro offices in Thika, Kakamega and Kibos.

There are 600 sericulture farmers in Kenya; about 50 rear silkworms while the rest grow mulberry trees.

Western, Nyanza, Central, Coast, Eastern, and parts of Rift Valley are known as potential silkworm farming areas, experts say.

“Mulberry can, however, be grown by farmers across the country but sericulture thrives in tropical zones; temperatures ranging from 24 to 28 degrees are preferred for the trees to do well. We are establishing other nurseries in Mtwapa and Matuga,” said Dr Kasina.

The Kalro experts at the Kandara sericulture centre are also adding value to mulberry to make animal feed especially for cattle and rabbits, as well as making extracts for yoghurt, juice, jam, jelly, fruit sauce and food colour from the leaves and fruit.

“We also process the mulberry leaves to make mulberry tea, which is quite good for cancer patients. A farmer can get a profit of Sh141 from a kilo of mulberry jam,” says Dr Kasina.

Juice from a kilo of mulberry berries cost Sh1,512.

“If farmers take up this practice seriously, they will reap big. Mulberry tea from an acre of land, for instance, can give a sericulture farmer gross margins of Sh1.8 million in a year, Sh11 million in two years and Sh14 million in three. Cocoon production from an acre can earn a net profit of Sh132,114 in two years up to Sh178,314 in the third year of farming,” says Dr Kasina.

Value addition

Although Kenya has been faulted for relying on raw exports, which earn peanuts, the State agricultural agency says it is now training tea farmers on value addition.

Experts say if Kenya’s tea exports are growing, then it is time to make more money by adding value instead of exporting them in their raw form.

Sylvester Cheruiyot, a laboratory technician at the Tea Research Institute (under Kalro), says there is a great potential in tea value addition.

“We want to produce hair shampoo, bar soap, cookies, juices and wines, all from tea extracts. We want to increase the market value for tea by converting it to various products,” Mr Cheruiyot said.