Smart farms

: 06 March 2018; Hits: 24185

Honey farm earns Sh700 more per kilogram by value addition

Nyaru Honey Eldoret

Branded Nyaru farm honey raedy for market. Processing and parckging honey earns the farm more money as compered to selling raw honey.

Nyaru honey farm in Uasin Ngishu County is earning Sh800 per kilogram of processed and packaged honey as compared to Sh100 a kilogram of raw honey, thanks to value addition that the farm adopted towards the end of 2016 to enable the farm reach more markets with a quality product.

The farm started with 15 beehives in 2015 from which about 75 kilograms of raw honey could be harvested per season and sold to direct consumers at Sh100 per kilo. However, this changed in 2016 when the farm purchased 30 more beehives and a centrifugal honey extractor machine to improve honey quality and quantity.

“Though we currently have our 32 beehives fully occupied with bees, we harvest 200Kg of raw honey a season from ten beehives giving us over 150Kg refined honey,” said Geoffrey Ng’etich, the farm manager.

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“The centrifugal honey extractor machine enables us extract honey from the honey combs without destroying them. The extractor is manually operated and it can be used by one person to extract honey from over 30 beehives.”

The farm operates under Graduate Internship Programme (GRIP), the programme which gives the youth and women opportunity and support to venture in various businesses to earn a living.

To keep the beehives packed with bees, the farm has planted flowering plants such as sunflower, acacia, avocadoes and orange fruit trees among other trees to help attract the bees and provide nectar for honey production.

The farm buys its packaging bottles from Eldoret Town and Nairobi where a bottle costs Sh20. The bottle are then labelled ‘Nyaru Honey’ as the brand identification.

Honey is then filled in the bottles and sold directly to customers who come to the farm to buy or place orders in GRIP offices in Eldoret Town.

A 500g bottle of honey goes at Sh400 while that of 250g fetches Sh200 per bottle.

The farm has further applied for Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for their product certification to allow them access more markets and win tenders with supermarkets and retail shops.

RELATED ARTICLE: Former teacher finds money in honey

“Lack of certification papers from the buereau is limiting us from reaching bigger markets at the moment. However, in the near future, once we get out certificate we will move to market our products countrywide, applying for supply tenders from the supermarkets and retail shops,” said Ng’etich.

"We are also projecting to start harvesting from 33 beehives soon expecting 60Kg refined honey per season. This we expect to earn us approximately Sh48,000 per season."

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: 05 March 2018; Hits: 76058

Farmer grows short-term crops to earn big in just 67 days

organic sukumawiki 1 kales

A thousand headed kales variety. The veriety produces about eight tonnes which is equivalent to eight thousand killograms per acre in a season.

Paul Serut, farmer from Kericho County has ventured into growing crops that take between 60 and 75 days to mature such as kales, zucchini, okra and tomatoes to enable him earn quick income in a short time than coffee he used to grow four years ago which he had to wait for up to three to five years to see the first fruits and wait for an extra nine months to start harvesting the fruits.

From 2007 to 2014 Serut grew coffee until August 2014 when he attended a farmers’ field day in the county which was organized by the county agricultural ministry to educate smallholder farmers on the need to grow fast maturing crops for sale.

“I discovered from the event that there some crops such as vegetables that I could harvest and take to the market more than three times a year than wait for coffee fruits to mature in nine months and wait for another three months for the payments from a processing company,” said Serut.

He now grows a thousand headed variety of kales which take 60 days to mature harvesting about eight tonnes per season from his one acre part of his land. He has five acres of land which he has divided in portions for his various crops.

He sales a 50-kilogram bag of kales at Sh700 farm-gate price and Sh1,200 market price translating to about Sh112,000 a season. His markets include Kericho Town and Kisumu’s Kiboswa market.

He grows tomatoes in his two greenhouses measuring 8x40 metres. One greenhouse has a capacity of 1250 tomato plants which translates to 2500 plants. A single tomato plant can give him around Sh500 totaling to Sh1.3m a season.

I grow Anna F1 tomato variety which take only 75 days to mature, I sell from my farm to trders who come on order and take some to the market,” said Serut.

“I can harvest this variety for over a month as long as I keep my greenhouses clean and free from pasts and diseases.”

Okra and zucchini which takes one and a half an acre. But he grow okra in one acre while zucchini in the remaining a half an acre because okra do not require much time and money to produce.

“Okra, especially the spineless variety I grow does not need strict and costly management after sowing like tomatoes or kales. This variety yields up to 10 bags an acre.”

Besides selling the fruit raw for consumers, he also sells a kilogramme of dried okra seeds at Sh150 while most farmers prefer to sell their produce when still in pods for more profits.

The zucchini squash he grows matures after 60 days after planting and the crop lifespan is 5-6 months. According to him, immature tender zucchinis are picked twice a week at a length of 15-20cm.

Though Serut admits that it is challenging to give every crop full attention, but it is a full-time job he has chosen to do-with success being the only alternative.

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: 05 March 2018; Hits: 15666

Agricultural Center to provide free two day training for Murang’a farmers

More than 6,000 Murang’a farmers are set to benefit from a free two day training courtesy of Kenyatta Agricultural Center. The training seeks to help farmers in the area diversify their crop production from over dependence on coffee, tea and macadamia to other crops such as avocado farming to reap more income.

“The free training will be held at Mariira farm along Kabati- Kangari Road from 16^th to 17^th March 2018 and will be attended by at least 45 stakeholders in the agricultural sector including seed companies, agro chemical industries and farm machinery companies,” said Peter Muchiri, the Principal Kenyatta Agricultural Training Center.

“Over 60 per cent of smallholder farmers in the region grow coffee and tea, coffee production for instance has declined over the years with production in 2017 estimated at 35m tonnes against a potential yield of 70m tonnes,”

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In the 1980’s, Murang’a produced 200m metric tonnes of coffee a year. It is projected that by 2022, coffee farmers will have reduced from the current 70,000 to below 40,000 farmers according to the ministry of agriculture.

In 2015, the County lost 710 acres of coffee to the construction industry mainly the real estate sector as well as to other agri-business ventures such as macadamia farming.

uganda training

A past farmers training/Photo/File

Farmers in the region are expected learn more on avocado farming. In this, they will be educated on the varieties to grow suitable for their regions. A Majority of farmers in the area grow fuerte and pinkerton varieties but Muchiri says there is need to adopt hass variety which is in high demand in the local and international markets.

Avocado contributes seven per cent of Kenya’s total fruit export to the global market but production has been static over the years. Farm production stood at 230,948 tonnes in 2015, rising slightly to 246,057 tonnes in 2016.

About 387.2 tonnes worth Sh5.4b was exported in 2016, compared to 461.1 tonnes worth Sh7.1b last year as per the Agriculture and Food Authority of Kenya data. Most of the fruits are exported to the European Union.

However, the export of the crop was banned in January this year due to severe shortage that raised the price of the fruit to a three and half year high. A single avocado for example is currently retailing at between Sh50 to Sh80 in Nairobi’s retail markets up from between Sh10 to Sh20 in the high season.

Besides avocado farming, farmers will also be trained on livestock management practices such as fodder production and conservation- silage making, hydroponic fodder production and different types of chaff cutters.

In the crop production category they will learn on greenhouse technologies and the new hybrid seed varieties in the market such as KATEH01 maize lethal necrosis diseases resistant variety amongst others.

For more information, interested farmers can contact Peter Muchiri on +254 726591694

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