Vihiga picks 2,500 farmers to grow traditional vegetables

Vihiga County is recruiting 2,500 farmers to venture into cultivating traditional African vegetables in a Sh30 million plan aimed at supporting growers with small parcels of land that are not viable for large-scale agriculture.

The county will from next week start supplying the farmers with seeds and cuttings for vegetables like black nightshade (lisutsa), spider plant (tsisaga), amaranth (tsimboga), cowpeas (likuvi) and jute mallow (mutere).

On Wednesday, Vihiga Trade executive Geofrey Vukaya said the programme is aimed at turning the rural county into a commercial hub for traditional vegetables.

Many farmers focus on growing kale, cabbage or spinach to sell locally – or higher earning broccoli and cauliflower – but traditional African vegetables have often been overlooked, not least because seeds are hard to find.

However, demand for traditional vegetables is rising on nutritional and medicinal values.

“The (Carrefour) supermarket has agreed to buy the traditional vegetables directly from the farmers. We will also set up collection centres at Walodeya in Chavakali, Wemilabi in Emuhaya, Majengo in Vihiga and Cheptulu in Hamisi where farmers will take their produce for sale,” said Mr Vukaya.

The collection centres, he added, will also serve as market for neighbouring counties of Nandi, Kakamega, Siaya and Busia. “Despite the small sizes of farms in the county, venturing into cultivation of traditional vegetables will be viable for our farmers. We chose to start with 2,500 farmers and spread to the rest as time goes by,” said Mr Vukaya. The trade executive said the seeds will be supplied by Natural Products Industry (NPI) while Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology is the trainer.

Fifteen sacks of traditional vegetables can be harvested per season on a one-acre piece of land at Sh102,400 per season.

Rising population has put pressure on land in Vihiga, where families, on average, have the smallest farm sizes in western Kenya.