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Farmer harnesses tidy profit from sisal machines
Mr Alex Odundo demonstrates how sisal fibre is processed using one of his home-made machines, called the decorticator. Right: The spooling machine, which is used to twine sisal fibres. The machine consumes eight litres of petrol and can process up to 160 kilogrammes of sisal fibre in eight hours. Everline Okewo
Traditionally, sisal was an export commodity but its importance has been diminishing due to competition from synthetic fibres.
However, Alex Odundo, who is determined to breathe new life into the neglected cash crop, has invented three sisal processing machines to encourage farmers to once again embrace sisal growing and increase their earnings from the crop since there is robust demand in the global market.
According to a recent report by the Kenya Sisal Board, the demand of sisal fibre stood at 400,000 metric tonnes globally.
However, Kenya only produced 25,000 metric tonnes while the rest of the world produced 250,000 metric tonnes.
“I saw there is money in sisal and the next thing I thought of was to invent a machine that I could use given that manual processing is very tedious and time consuming,” says Mr Odundo, 30. “I also wanted to encourage small-scale farmers in Nyanza and those living in arid areas to reinvest in sisal growing”.
Mr Odundo, who lives in Kisumu’s Manyatta estate, said that with his three home-made investions: the decorticator, sisal twine and sisal rope spooling machines, he is likely to benefit from a sisal boom through value addition.
Each of the portable machines consumes eight litres of petrol which can twine up to 160kg of sisal fibre for eight hours.
The decorticator works by inserting a sisal leaf halfway. The machine then crushes the leaf between rollers, turning the raw leaf into strands of fibre. He sells the fibre to traders or makes products like ropes, baskets and carpets which he sells.
Mr Odundo says he started with an initial capital of Sh70,000 to make his first machine.
These days, he also makes some for sale. The cost of each ranges between Sh50,000 and Sh100,000 depending on the design and type.
“My first machine was bought by a client from Tanzania after getting information from a friend. I sold the machine at Sh110,000,” he said. He has also had customers from Rwanda and Ethiopia. He says the machine has added value to the raw materials. If he buys a sisal leaf for Sh5, he can process it and sell ropes at Sh100, earning a handsome profit.
According to Mrs Irene Onyango, a smallholder grower in Kadem village in Migori County, Mr Odundo’s home-made machines have gained popularity since they have enabled farmers close to the Tanzania border to export sisal fibre to traders in Tanzania even though the business is still low due to low fibre production.
Mr Odundo, a former student of Kisumu Polytechnic and a father of three, said that with the prolonged dry periods and erratic rains which have ruined food crops in the northern and eastern parts of the country, farmers in these regions can improve their fortunes by growing drought-resistant crops such as sisal.
“Instead of planting cereal crops in such areas which are likely to wilt, farmers should invest in sisal because with the sale of sisal leaves for processing into fibre, one cannot go hungry,” says Mr Odundo, who runs a sisal plantation in the Kano plains.
High global demand
According to him, the high global demand for sisal fibre has seen Kenya lose revenue by failing to produce enough for the export market.
He says that most farmers who abandoned growing sisal attributed their decision to exploitation by middlemen, leading to low earnings.
In Kenya, sisal is commonly grown on a large scale in Kitui, Voi and Machakos and on a small scale in some parts of Nyanza Province, including Kano, Homa Bay, Migori and Karachuonyo districts.
