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Top North Rift farmers lead switch to high return crops away from maize

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Workers at Joshua Kulei’s Sololo farm in Uasin Gishu where he grows avocado. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NMG

For many years, Peter Boit grew maize on his vast farm. But with dwindling fortunes, like other large-scale maize farmers, he decided to diversify into coffee and tree farming.

“Maize cultivation is no longer a profitable venture due to high investment and low returns. Cartels in the supply market chain cause artificial shortage prior to harvest to flood the market with cheap imports lowering prices for the local produce” says Mr Boit.

Large scale farmers in the North Rift region-the country’s food basket and across the country are taking the lead in embracing crop diversification to address the price fluctuations of traditional crops blamed on influx of grains into the country.

Mr Boit has diversified to coffee production and private farm forestry which he says attracts better returns compared to maize and wheat cultivation.

A kilo of cherry beans is going at Sh60 up from Sh43, while parchment selling at Sh310 up from Sh160 and Mbuni is retailing between Sh45 and Sh 90 for the same quantity.

“Coffee payments have improved over the years and this has encouraged farmers to improve their crops husbandry,” says Mr Boit, a farmer in Uasin Gishu.

In Trans Nzoia, at her Sirwo farm in Cherangany’, Zipporah Kittony, ex-Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairperson grows macadamia, coffee and tea and rears dairy cows .

“At this farm, we used to grow maize. We encountered challenges in the sense of the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB). You see, in some cases, farmers are forced to return their produce because they have high moisture content,” she said.

According to the farmer, maize price fluctuation frustrates most growers who are forced to sell their produce at throw-away prices.

Value addition

“Currently, we have reduced the acreage under maize and we are doing about 50 acres for silage-making for our dairy cows. In 2012, we started farming grafted macadamia and coffee after conducting a market survey and discovered a farmer can fetch better prices,” she explains.

Prices of macadamia nuts fluctuate between Sh120 and Sh200 per kilo depending on the season.

In 2016, Ms Kittony started to add value to the coffee. They harvest, clean, then transport it for roasting and milling before it is packaged in Nairobi. This value addition has not only seen her get better prices locally, but also opened the international markets for her.

“We have packaged 350 grammes which goes for Sh1,000 under two brands. Due to the good agronomic practices, red volcanic soils and good climate, our coffee is one of the most popular in the country for to its aromatic smell and good taste. Some of the value-added coffee is sold in Europe through the Coffee Board of Kenya,” she notes.

In Uasin Gishu, Joshua Kulei grows summer flowers and avocados for the international markets at his 200-hectare Sololo farm. Two years ago, he planted 65 hectares of avocados.

Mr Andrew Tubei, the farm general manager explains that besides avocados generating better earnings than maize, the crop also contributes to lowering carbon foot-print.

Mr Tubei advises farmers to embrace the crop noting that from one acre one can get a net of Sh1 million from avocado compared to one acre of maize which take about eight months to mature only for a farmer to earn Sh100, 000.

Growing consumption

“One can start small then expand slowly. Avocado consumption globally is growing. We have done own statistics, 10 years ago in Europe they used to consume on average a kilo per person, currently they are in 5 kilogramme per person,” he observes.

Micah Cheserem, former Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) chairperson is among the first farmers who ventured into avocado farming in Uasin Gishu three years ago.

Since 2018, he has been growing avocado trees on his 50-acre Limpopo farm and has been exporting the produce via agents.

Mr Cheserem explains that with the Indian market opening up for the fruit, the returns from the agricultural produce can only get better.

“Indian market has opened up their market for avocados. The Chinese market is also opening up. We are optimistic that other markets such as Singapore and Thailand will open up,” explains the former Central Bank of Kenya Governor.

“If a farmer decides to venture into these crops, then they need to specialise on one crop to realise high number of tonnes or crates and reap maximum returns. One needs to invest in water and work with professionals for good management of crops.”

Crop diversification away from maize is considered that besides empowering the local farming community, it is also a long-term solution in land reclamation and the effects of climate change.

In the last six years, farmers have borne greatest brunt of the delayed rains. In Trans Nzoia, the county department projects decline of about 800,000 bags due to the delayed rains.

According to County Agriculture executive Mary Nzomo, the harvest is projected to decline to 4.8 million bags compared to projected 5.6 million bags this season.

“We are encouraging our farmers to embrace smart climate agriculture. We are also advising them to make use of climate information and advisories to make informed choices when planning for their production,” adds Ms Nzomo, noting that farmers need to also adopt crop and livestock insurance to mitigate risk associated with climate change.

In Uasin Gishu her counterpart Samuel Yego is also bracing for decline in production this year due to the delayed rains.

Last year, he says, the devolved unit produced five million bags of maize while the acreage under wheat was 18,000 hectares.

“We expect to have a small decline in maize harvests this season. We have not yet done crop cut to get exact number of decline projected bags of maize this season. We also expect a decline in wheat production this season to not exceed 17,000 hectares,” discloses Mr Yego.

To mitigate the climate change and unchecked land sub division risk, a number of counties in the region are spearheading crop diversification and agro-forestry measures.

Diversification programme

“Under our diversification programme, we are promoting fruit trees such as avocado, macadamia, mangoes, apples which can be integrated with the food crops. For large scale farmers, we are encouraging them to establish orchards and grow fruit trees to get more value from their land and boost tree cover,” explains Ms Nzomo.

For large scale farmers like Thomas Korgoren, a wheat and maize grower, he is projecting a decline in production this season by 30 per cent due to poor rains.

“We are going to get fewer yields this season due to delay in rains. We want to appeal to government to find ways to lower cost of production,” he observes.

Dr Daniel Chebet, a pomologist from University of Eldoret notes that conservation agriculture and crop diversification is the solution to climate change and in improving farmers’ earnings.

Improving productivity

“It is important to practice conservation agriculture to improve productivity. Countries like US, the average yield are 42 bags per acre compared to national average of six to 10 bags in Kenya because farmers there practice conservation agriculture,” says Dr Chebet, adding that farmers in such countries get up to 100 and 136 bags of maize per acre.

The expert explains that crops such as macadamia, coffee and avocado to cover the conserve water in the soils, improve soil fertility by improving the organic matter layer in soils.

“With conservation agriculture, it helps to break hard-pan in soils and allow storage of water in soils which will be taken by the plants. By digging 2 feet hole, this break hard pan and it allows water to percolate into the soils. It also provide ground cover and this prevent water evaporation,” he says.

“We have farmer who practice conservation agriculture and his crop survive and grew for 53 days without a single drop of rain water. A farmer can harvest twice.”

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