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: 02 July 2019; Hits: 7252

Homa Bay youth selling over ten varieties of tree seedlings across Kenya in bid to beat climate change

Two youths in Homa Bay County are selling more than five tree seedlings varieties to farmers, institutions and individuals across Kenya in a bid aimed at improving Kenya’s forest cover and reducing the effects of climate change.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, forests and trees are important carbon sinks. They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as carbon. Carbon repossession by forests has attracted much interest as a mitigation approach, as it has been considered a relatively inexpensive means of addressing climate change.

The recent drought in Kenya that led to delayed rains from March to May for instance show how Kenya is vulnerable to climate change as it affects more 70 per cent of the rural population who depend on agriculture.

“We are selling grevillia, shade, whistling pine, mango, orange, pawpaw, coffee and passion fruit seedlings to anyone interested in planting these trees in their homes or institutions either for income generation, beautification or future use,” said Caleb Ouma who co-owns a tree nursery with over 100,000 seedlings with his partner, Kevin Ochieng.

They sell one seedling of grevillia at Sh30, passion fruit at Sh50, shade tree at between Sh30 to Sh40 and whistling pine at Sh30.

“Prospective buyers can get our seeds by reaching us on +254 716 825 742 and we will send the seedlings to wherever they are,” said Ouma.

In this, they pay transport costs for clients who buy more than 100 seedlings but those buying less cater for their own transport costs. Delivery is done after paying the total cost.

High yielding and fast maturing grafted tree tomato seedlings variety now available for Kenyan farmers

An 82-year-old Machakos farmer who grows different varieties of fruits from single stem tree

tree seedlings ouma

Ouma inspecting his tree seedlings at his farm in Homa Bay

Ouma started the venture in December 2018 after his contract at a sales and marketing firm expired.

“I chose not to look for another job; instead I realized that there is money in the soil, besides my friend Ochieng who does fencing jobs found out that there was a high demand of tree seedlings in Homa Bay where he was working,” said Ouma.

Initially, in February 2018, Ouma, Ochieng and four other friends had come together by planting 5,000 seedlings but disagreements on how to sell them when they matured in August 2018 led to the group breaking up.

“One member in the group sprayed all the trees with an herbicide and we ended making full losses, even though his family compensated us with Sh20,000 which we shared based on our contribution,” said Ouma.

After that the incident Ouma and Ochieng decided to start their own nursery by contributing Sh3000 each to buy a 15 liter water can which cost Sh500 and a hoe (jembe) which cost Sh600.

From 1,000 seedlings they started with their nursery now has over five thousand seedlings for each of pawpaw, passion fruits, mangoes, avocado, shade trees, whistling pine, over 20,000 coffee seedlings, around 10,000 grivellia seedlings, 500 oranges and 2,000 flower seedlings of different varieties.

So far the two have sold more than 2,000 seedlings since January locally. They use social media platforms such as Facebook to market the products.

“We have also donated more than 400 seedlings to various institutions and trained them on how to plant, during the recent world environment day for instance, we donated 250 seedlings to five schools within Homa Bay,” said Ouma.

When planting, Ouma advises one to dig the hole at least twice as wide as the root ball to allow them to settle deeper and penetrate firmly and use the same soil from the hole to cover the planted seedling.

“While planting, do not cover the leaves as this might lead to death of the seedling,” he said.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey Report of 2019, the total forest area increased marginally from 4,222.4 thousand hectares in 2017 to 4224.3 thousand hectares in 2018. However, the forest cover remained at 7.28 per cent in 2018 way below the 10 per cent the country intends to achieve by 2030.

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: 02 July 2019; Hits: 5385

Law graduate who turned from a farm produce broker to a grower and supplier of fresh cucumber and lettuce

zucchini Thriving cucumber in part of Tejeu's farm at Birika in Kajiado County. He also grows lettuce and tomatoes in other parts of the farm. Photo courtesy.

In 2009 Mathew Tejeu registered for a Bachelor’s degree in law at Africa Nazarene University. He would source farm produce from farmers in different locations and transport to Nairobi to sell during his free time as a way of making pocket money and savings.

Little did he know that this was part of training which would usher him into a lucrative cucumber and lettuce production, a venture which is currently earning him up to Sh160,000 a month since he started it in 2014 shortly after graduation.

“While in school, I worked as farm produce broker. I would source some tomatoes from farmers in Nyandarua to sell at Marikiti Market in Nairobi. I also connected some sheep and goats farmers from Kajiado who wanted to sell their livestock to prospective buyers and if the deal went through, I earned my commission.” Said Tejau

It is from this job, he managed to save Sh50,000 which he used to hire the farmhand and buy the inputs. He paid the farmhand Sh2,000 to run the daily activities on the farm, Sh15,000 he spent on installing drip irrigation, Sh10,000 on fertiliser and some to buy lettuce and cucumbers seeds.

He would then plant the two crops within a partitioned three acres piece of a plot at Birika between Isinya and Kiserian in Kajiado County in November the same year targeting to start harvesting end of December and through January when the vegetables are trailing high in most local markets.

“During this time there is always drought in most parts of the country and vegetables are hard to get hence the there is always high demand against low supply. It therefore becomes the best opportunity for vegetable farmers to make a good income,” said Tejeu.

According to him, Lettuce takes 40-60 days to mature depending on the weather while cucumbers take 60 days to harvest.

The law graduate has since mastered the art of producing the two crops. He plants 5000 pieces of lettuce every two weeks while cucumbers he plants after every four weeks rotationally and continuously throughout the year to spread his harvest and income.

He harvests 2,000 pieces of lettuce after every two weeks and 2,000 kilos of cucumbers in every four weeks.

A piece of lettuce goes at Sh30 at Marikiti Market while a kilo of cucumbers sells at Sh50 at the same market at a maximum price. This translates to Sh160,000 gross income per month before deducting Sh16,000 transport cost per week among other expenses.

Today, Tejau has further employed five farmhands whom he pays between Sh9,000 to Sh13,000 per month depending on the work done.

One big challenge he faces is the government’s high taxation on pesticides that shoots up the price of the farm input. “If I were to spend Sh10,000 per week on pesticides, for example, with the new VAT regulations, the figure will rise to Sh75,000 increasing the cost of production,” said Tejeu.

Despite the challenges, he is planning to put up a grocery in Birika, which will enable him and other farmers sell their produce directly to consumers and big retail outlets without passing through middlemen, who he says deny farmers their full returns.

Besides farming, Jejeu is also the CEO of Centre for Advocacy Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse, an NGO advocating for a drug-free society.

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: 01 July 2019; Hits: 4941

Village-based farmers’ coop trains and provides farm inputs and ready market for smallholders

farmers sorting potatoes

Village Economic Empowerment's farmers sorting potato. The farmers are trained in the best farming practices for higher production and income. Photo courtesy.

It is not farming as usual for more than 400 smallholder farmers in Kiambu, Nyandarua and Kajiado counties. The farmers have embraced the use of high yielding seeds, correct use of fertiliser and access to water and market thanks to Village Economic Empowerment, a Kenyan village-based cooperative that works with the farmers to improve their yields and incomes.

The cooperative through a team of its agronomists approach the farmers in their farm areas where they talk to them and advise them on how to improve on their production with better farming practices using certified seeds and fartiliser.

“We do not force farmers to work with us but we visit them and sell to them our ideas and agendas. Most of them have accepted to become our members by a free registration to be able to enjoy our services,” said Elvis Githinji, CEO of the cooperative and one of the co-founders.

These farmers are then grouped as per the crop they are interested to grow for hands-on training sessions with specific lessons organised by the agronomist. The practical classes are conducted in the fields where the crops are or grown.

Elvis halping farmers receive certified seeds

Mr. Elvis Githinji (right) issuing certified seeds to farmers of Village Economic Empowerment cooperative. Photo courtesy.

Potatoes, for example, have 16 lessons for farmers to go through while vegetables have shorter training lessons.

After training farmers get subsidised farm inputs which include fertiliser and seeds which are mostly sourced from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) by the cooperative on behalf of the farmers.

“Since we started working with the growers in 2012, we have realised that most of them still depend on the traditional farming methods which no longer benefit them in terms of production and marketing hence the training and giving them the access to clean planting materials to up their yields and income,” said Elvis.

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Once the produce are mature and ready for market, the cooperative through its business associate, Change Business Kenya buys the produce from farmers hence providing ready market for them.

“On this, we have several market linkages for our growers to ensure they are not stranded with their produce, a situation that may create chance for exploitation by unscrupulous middlemen.”

Already the cooperative has a cold storage at Kinari, Kiambu with a capacity of 80 tonnes and a seed curing storage at Karangatha with a capacity of 50 tonnes.

It has also dug a borehole for Kajiado farmers and installed irrigation equipment that will enable the farmers practice bucket farming within their Manyattas.

farmers tending to their kales

Village Economic Empowerment's farmers weeding their cabbage and potato farm. Photo courtesy.

So far the cooperative has trained 25 per cent of its farmers and once all are trained, it will start thinking of exporting the farmers produce.

“We are still unable to export the produce because of high standards needed by regulating agencies and the markets but once more farmers are trained and they can produce enough for export, we will start considering selling to other countries,” said Elvis.

The cooperative gets its funding from various donors.

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