How Pascal Kisongoa reaps millions from his citrus mega-farm

Located about 1.5 kilometres off the Wote-Emali Road, a forest of citrus groves sits just metres from the dusty dirt road leading to Emali town.

Kisongoa Farm, which covers 15 acres in Nziu, Makueni County, is a sprawling plantation of citrus fruits, some ripe and others still in bloom.

Pascal attributes his love of farming to his father, who has always been a farmer.

Growing up, he often helped his father on the farm and learned various gardening skills, such as preparing the land for cultivation and applying the correct fertiliser.

“After graduating in 2023, I returned home to continue working on my family’s farm, which I had known all my life through my father’s involvement. I never thought about looking for a job,” the electrical engineering graduate tells BD Life during an interview at his farm.

In just six years, Pascal has turned his family’s land into a successful gold mining operation. Starting with five pixie trees, he now has more than 5,000 citrus trees and has established himself as a prosperous citrus farmer. However, this achievement did not come easily.

"In the early 1990s, my grandmother planted maize my grandmother planted maize on this farm.

"When my father started planting mangoes, she got angry and cut down all the mango trees to plant her maize.

"But after my father convinced her otherwise, she agreed, and we shared the land. We then switched to citrus,” says the 25-year-old.

“The first harvest my father got was Sh30,000 from just five pixie trees. This breakthrough made us take citrus farming to a higher level.

“We started our serious business venture in 2015. During that time, we harvested 500 kilogrammes of pixies and sold them at Sh120 per kilogramme.”

He has five varieties of citrus trees, including pixie, Washington and Minneola, which have a protruding top, are lemon-shaped and have a lot of juice.

The Clementine has no juice and little sugar, making it suitable for people on low-sugar diets. It has seeds, but they do not germinate. He has about 30 tangerine trees and also the Maya lemons. The Pixie and Washington give him the best turnover.

The citrus trees, he says, came from Israel.

“A friend of my father’s friend went to Israel and “stole” some plants that looked like oranges. When he came back to the country, he gave them to his close friends, and that’s how he got the seedlings,” he explains.

However, something is interesting about the fruit that explains why they are seedless.

“All the trees are grafted with lemon rootstock, so they cannot be grown from seed and have to be grafted to reproduce,” he says.

They take up to three years to mature and six months from flowering to ripening.

“I can harvest up to three times a year from the 3,000 pixie trees. In January, March and July. Last season I harvested up to 30 metric tonnes.

"A kilogramme of pixie sells for up to Sh200 when the yield is low and as low as Sh80 when it is plentiful. Washington sells for Sh45 per kilo. One tree of Washington oranges can give me 200 kilogrammes a season,” he says.

Most of his buyers are from the local market, including neighbouring towns and brokers who “come and harvest themselves directly from the farm”.

“My worst season was when Covid-19 hit the district, and many people flew to the capital. I used to sell a kilo for Sh60.”

He regularly scouts for diseases with the help of his workers, who look after the gnomes. The trees are pruned, fertilised with cow manure and sprayed before flowering to ensure the chemicals don’t harm the pollinators. “If you don’t prune, the lemon will outgrow the orange,” Pascal points out.

For irrigation, a generator is used to pump water from the well. The trees have a lifespan of 60 years, which means they can produce fruit for generations.

One of the diseases affecting the fruits is citrus canker, which causes the fruit to dry out and drop, while the leaves develop black spots.

Other enemies include aphids and white flies, which feed on the tips of the fruit. He uses pheromone traps to control fruit flies.

Market failure

Market failure can occur for several reasons, including externalities and a lack of information. For Pascal, the flooded market is his biggest challenge.

“Many people are growing oranges. You will find some selling their produce at a lower price, so buyers will go for the cheaper ones. That means you have to wait until theirs are sold before you can find buyers,” he says.

Growing pixie oranges is a lucrative venture for Kenyan farmers, with many benefits, including high yields, which allow farmers to harvest a large number of oranges from a relatively small parcel of land, and high nutritional value: pixie oranges are rich in vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, folate and potassium, making them a healthy snack for consumers.

Pixies have a good return on investment compared to other fruits such as oranges, tangerines and lemons because they produce more fruit concentrated on a single branch

Pixie farming in Kenya has gained significant momentum compared to other forms of agribusiness due to its high profitability.

There is a high demand for these juicy fruits due to their superior quality and sweetness compared to other orange varieties. However, supply is still very low as most growers have only recently discovered the variety. This explains why the price of pixie oranges remains high, even in our local supermarkets.

Pascal intends to expand the business by increasing the number of trees to meet export demand.

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