By George Munene

Voted the super fruit of 2013, the pitaya— otherwise known as dragon fruit— has only in the last five years begun to gain traction with Kenyan farmers. Given that a kilogram of the fruit currently sells locally for Sh890, and was at Sh2000 pre-Covid-19, the scaly, bright red, purple or yellow-skinned tropical fruit has been abuzz about farming circles, minting its early adopters some ripe returns.

Back in 2015 when Dr. Freddie Acosta, a lecturer at Strathmore University first imported in dragon fruit seeds into the country he found few takers. Now he’s just finalised an order of 1200 cuttings for a farmer setting up a 25-acre pitaya farm at Makuyu.

“The fruit is in high demand especially among Asian nationals in the country; I have orders for a weekly supply of two tons from a Chinese restaurant in Nairobi,” he says.

Pitayas usually begin to flower in November and fruit in 45 days. This usually sets up for improved market supply and reduced prices over January/February when most supermarkets and grocery outlets import the fruits from South Africa. Prices hit their peak over the July to November months right before the next harvesting cycle begins.    

For Waweru Murimi, a farmer at Malaa along Kangundo road, his sojourn into dragon fruit farming started out on an inauspicious note after he lost Sh8,000 in 2015 on a would-be purchase of the fruit’s seedlings. Having read up on its status as a superfruit and myriad health benefits (it is rich in fibre, calcium and 100 grams of dragon fruit has approximately 50 percent of required daily vitamin C intake, it helps lower cholesterol, the fruit's vitamin B-3 content is thought to enhance the skin’s smoothness and appearance while also being eaten by diabetes patients to help regulate blood sugar levels) he resolved to import its cuttings from Dragon Fruit South-Africa Community Program head Max van Heerden.

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In December 2016 he got his first 80 cuttings which he has used to propagate to his current 2000 vines which fit into one-quarter of an acre. A mixed farmer growing a variety of fruit trees; apples, papayas and mangoes he attests that pitayas are the easiest to tend to plants he has ever grown—they need no spraying and being an exotic cactus species, consume very little water. “Once you have bought the cuttings and made a stand, there is little spend in terms of production costs other than occasional manuring and pruning,” he explains.

He is now on his second fruiting season which begins in November/ December when the flowering begins and lasts five months. Having harvested 200 fruits on his first go, he expects 500-1000 fruits this season.

The plants peak production is at the third year of harvest reaching 32 to 100 fruits per plant. Most of Muremi’s fruits weigh between 600 grams and 1.2 kilograms. The fruits are mainly distinguished by their colour and taste with the red and purple-fleshed varieties being sweeter than the sour-sweet white-fleshed type.

“The returns from dragon fruit have been good; my currently just flowering fruits have bookings as far out as Uganda but my impetus to start growing pitayas was not so much what I could earn but my own domestic consumption: If someone is willing to part with Ksh1000 for two of my fruits, I too should get to enjoy the tremendous benefits to be found in its consumption,” he opines.     

Murimi has his sights set on expanding his dragon fruit farm to five acres; to this end, he is importing 12 cuttings at a cost of up to Sh20,000 per piece for a hybrid yellow variety that is sweeter and higher-yielding than the locally available cultivars.

Dragon fruits are hardy and have negligible cases of pest and disease attacks. “They are only vulnerable when they are in the nursery; snails have damaged a couple of my seedlings but can be easily controlled by the use of magnesium sulfate. There are also rare fruit fly and rust attacks that can be handled by copper-based fungicides, but as I have opted to grow my fruits organically, I use neem oil or cut and dispose of infected branches,” says Murimi.

From their research and firsthand experience, Kenyan farmers who have had success growing the dragon fruit say it all begins with the selection of mature cuttings that are at least two years old and over 30cm in length—these take 9 to 18 months before they mature. A cutting is sold locally for Sh500 to Sh300. Growing from seeds takes four to six years while using cuttings that are undeveloped (less than two years old) take at least two years.

Whilst the plant is drought resistant it needs regular watering to grow and yield at its peak potential. For Mburu, he waters his fruits once or twice a week, though watering frequency is dictated by weather. He also sprays his plants with organic foliars rich in nitrogen to help enhance growth. They also contain phosphorus and potassium which encourage flowering and fruiting.

The dragon fruit needs some 8 hours of sunshine daily, ideally with an average temperature range of 15-25°C, making it suited to arid and semi regions. It is best grown on sandy soils though it can thrive in all soil types given they are well-drained and not waterlogged. They are also ideal for urban farmers as they can be sown in containers. In the backyard of his Mbagathi home, Freddie grows a couple of dragon fruits in crates.

Dragon fruits are climbers that can grow up to 30 feet tall, thus need their vertical growth curbed and should be supported through stake and trellis. Waweru uses a tire held up by two closing bars to train the vines ensuring they maintain a manageable length.

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Four cuttings can be planted per one concrete post, one or two for wooden poles four inches wide and six feet high. “Pitayas fruit annually for 20 to 30 years before there is a decline in production meaning it is important to use quality staking posts that will last a long time,” Murimi explains.

Almost every bit of a pitaya can be consumed; its roots, flowers and peels can be used to make herbal tea, its stems soap while its fruits can be made value-added to make wine, juices, yogurt and smoothies.      

Freddy expects the fruit's novelty to wears off and as more farmers begin growing it, its price is bound to fall—“I foresee in time the fruit retailing at a more reasonable Sh400 per kilogram with normalised supply and demand forces,” he says.

As dragon fruit farming in Kenya is new, the few farmers that they are have formed a Whatsapp group that helps them connect and learn the best agronomic practices from each other, they also get to visit each other’s farms and exchange different varieties of the fruit.    

By George Munene
By constructing water reservoirs farmers are able to save on watering costs as well as avoid reliance on rain-fed agriculture—allowing them to produce over the drier seasons when most agricultural produce is scarce and commodity prices are at their peak.
Timothy Mburu constructed his 50 million liter capacity dam on half an acre in 2011. It was 2015 before he first sowed on his five-acre farm at Naro Moru, Nyeri County. Having not to rely on tap water and channeling water into his farm through gravity, he has cut his production costs by up to 60 per cent. For his cabbages for example, his watering costs per acre is just Sh 3000—constituting largely of labour. This is compared to the other farmers around him who spend Sh15,000-20000 on irrigation. “I do not cultivate crops over the rainy season—I target my cultivation over the drier June to September months— that way my produce hits market when the supply is lower than demand,” says Mburu.
The dam also doubles up as a fish pond, hosting tilapia and catfish which he sells for an extra income.
“As a career agriculturalist trained in crop production and water resource management, I had an acute understanding of how important it was before anything else, being that farming is a water-intensive undertaking, that I have a reliable source of water. My dam ensures I have clean water for both crop irrigation (cabbages, potatoes and garlics) as well as watering my animals (15 cows and 20 sheep) throughout the year.” he says.

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For Caleb Karuga having a water pan on his farm was a no-brainer. In 2010 he had been having major water problems and farming on leased land, he could not sink a borehole or well. On his farm at Kikuyu sub-county, he’s set up a 144,000 liters pond; a do it yourself project that cost him Sh43,000—Sh20,000 in labor costs and an addition Sh23,000 in buying a dam liner. “I would have had to buy 14 plastic tanks with 10,000 liter capacity at a cost of Sh980,000 to harvest the same amount of water. I tap water from my goat shed and gutters on my chicken coop which is all fed into the reservoir. The pond has made me an unwitting fish and bee farmer besides keeping my farm irrigated for three to four months, “he explains.
It has also created his own magical oasis, a cyclic ecosystem that begins with the rainwater wash off deposited from the goat’s shed full of nitrogenous waste. To this, he adds chicken manure to provide the perfect fish breeding ground. He is also now got into duck rearing—they also provide manure, spurring phytoplankton growth giving his fish even more food. This ‘improved rainwater’ provides readymade liquid manure for his vegetables, lucerne for his goats, sweet potato vines, strawberries and maize. He is now even able to ‘zero graze’ his own bees which have a readily available water source meaning they do not have to wander.
To construct his dam Mburu spent Sh1.2 million—an exorbitant amount given that when he built it in 2011 dams were still a novel idea for most farmers; resource mobilization in terms of getting a government-owned excavator to his site took him almost a month and cost him Sh12,000 to run every hour. With an eight hour workshift the project was completed in 26 days. “Today you can hire the same machinery at half the cost and with the proliferation of private companies offering excavator services you do not have to spend the Sh100,000 I did just to get the bulldozer and its personnel to my farm, “he points out.

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On another five acres he recently acquired, he’s worked to construct a 110 000 liter water pan on an eighth of an acre. With his worn experience this has cost him just Sh20,000 in hired labor. He is working on progressively increasing it to sit on half an acre, with a 20-30 million liter water holding capacity.
His 50 million liter dam sits on half an acre but the water consumes just ¼ of this with the rests constituting compacted walls. The walls are four meters high above the ground with a slanted depth of three meters—this is done to reduce the wall pressure to prevent the dam from bursting. At the top of his walls, he grows tough grass such as Kikuyu which spreads by producing a thick mat or thatch above the soil surface which improves compatibility preventing soil erosion. Trees should not be grown on the dam’s walls as their roots will crack into the dam’s walls to sip water.
A water reservoir should be set up out of the direct site of running water and the impact of onrushing water reduced by putting up detours that reduce the velocity of onrushing water.
Mburu does not control for evaporation; “Not once have I ever run out of water—50 million liters can irrigate a 10-acre farm for 90 days— the germination time for most crops— if some 100,000 liters is lost through evaporation, that is negligible,” he says.
Caleb urges Kenyan farmers to consider water harvesting as essential to crop production and not just as a way of tapping water for human and animal consumption.