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: 22 May 2019; Hits: 8509

Market opens for small-scale cassava farmers in Machakos County

Ebwana Tereka cassavazablon Ebwana Tereka cassava variety which was released in 2017 by Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (KALRO). Smallholder farmers in Machakos growing the crop will enjoy ready market following the opening of a processing plant in the area. Photo, Zablon Oyugi.

Small-scale farmers who have been producing cassava for domestic consumption can sell the crop to earn money following the opening of Kiara Agro Limited factory in Machakos County. The factory processes at least 15 tonnes of cassava to extract starch from tuber for re-packaging and selling to local consumers.

Kiara Agro Ltd Managing Director Pinal Patel says the factory is ready to help farmers in producing high-quality cassava to meet its demand while providing a source of revenue to the families. Soil can be tested and best yielding breeds recommended, as one of the ways of helping the farmers.

“The cassava tubers must be of good quality to fetch well. Quality tubers yield high starch content, which is good for the company and the farmer. They have less fibre content and more starch, which is our main target product,” he says.

Quality tubers

But the director insists that the cassava must meet the set criteria for the company to accept produce from suppliers. A mature tuber must be at least one or one and a half feet long, and two to three inches in thickness. This would ensure maximum productivity.

“For every five kilos of the tubers we can extract a maximum of one kilo of starch. This is achievable if a farmer has the right variety and proper management practices,” he said.

Value addition

Just like sweet and Irish potatoes, farmers are selling cassava in the form of crisps. Much of the processing cassava into crisps is done locally, with more others doing it on roadsides and open spaces, posing multiple health risks.

Patel said the starch minting from the cassava is an opportunity for farmers to enjoy the tuber in its finest powder form when the less useful materials like fibre have been eliminated. “Besides hygiene, processing increases the shelf-life of the cassava.

No produce would go to waste after processing, for it will be consumed when the supply from farms is low. This would ensure a constant supply to avid consumers,” he said.

Cassava is money

Cassava tolerates relatively poor soils and drought. This makes it a leading staple food for more than 300 million Africans of drier regions. Food and Agricultural Organisation says Africa produced 140 million metric tonnes of cassava against 65 million metric tonnes of maize in 2011.

Much of this cassava is more of a food than a cash crop. But the emergence of the processing industry would turn the tuber into a commercial crop for most small-scale farmers in drier and infertile soil regions where tea, coffee and other crops may not do well.

They will earn between Sh4 and Sh6 per kilo, which he says is way above the production cost of about Sh1.30 per kilo of cassava. The director said their research had shown the local market is in demand of processed cassava, making this venture a lucrative investment.

He said the company looks forward to expanding to process more cassava.

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: 22 May 2019; Hits: 5361

Journalist ventures into honey production, buys produce from farmers

Shortage of honey in the market prompted Gerald Mutunga, a Journalist by profession to venture into honey production to reduce the deficit.

According to the United States Agency for International Development, Kenya produces 7,300 tonnes of honey against a demand of 100,000 tonnes.

“In 2015, a media friend approached me in the office and enquired where to get natural honey. My homeland Makueni County is associated with honey and so he did not feel lost to ask me. Unfortunately I did not give the answer he expected. We got in to exploring the honey business in Kenya and that’s where I got my idea from,” said Mutunga.

Mutunga, a Media Content Producer at Africa Choice Media Services found out that it was difficult to trust any honey product in the market, and thus, dealing with bee keepers was the ideal thing. After almost three months waiting for one liter supply from a farmer he was referred to, it hit his mind that if that’s what it take to get natural honey , then he could try it out and be more efficient and trust worthy. That’s how his honey production journey began.

“I went home and assembled a locally made beehive using local wood using YouTube as my teacher,” said Mutunga.

“Back in Nairobi, I got impatient and I could not wait for bees to colonize my hive and have the first harvest, I set out on a journey to find bee keepers in our village and bought all their supplies, I only got five kilos at Sh1,500 and packed them into one liter soda bottles which I sold at Sh1,000 per liter. In two days I was out of stock and got news orders waiting for delivery,”

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honey kweli

Ukweli brand of honey produced by Mutunga's company.

Currently, he owns 27 bee hives set at his father’s land, out of which 22 are colonized; he is assured of getting two to four kilos of raw honey per hive every three months.

In 2018, he registered his company, Ukweli Brands limited that produces the kweli brand of honey. A kilo of this produce goes for Sh700. He has three employees, one for delivery to clients, one for marketing through social media and another takes care of the hives.

“Our clientele are mainly referrals looking to get unadulterated products from suppliers they can trust. From Initial five liters stock, we currently stock up to three tonnes. Technology is our main link to new clients with sales coming from online platforms like Facebook and Jumia,” said Mutunga.

“Kweli Honey has high antioxidant activity and is rich in vitamins and other minerals making it one of those foods that can benefit you daily. Raw, unfiltered honey is beneficial because it is minimally processed, keeping its nutritional profile in-tact,”

Mutunga also sources honey from farmers at Sh300 per kilo. Currently he has 37 registered farmers who supply him with the produce. Of this, two are from Baringo; three from Tanzania and the rest are based in Makueni.

Most of the farmers he gets are referrals and some are from his Facebook page, Kweli Honey.

“Once a farmer informs us that he has beehives and wants to supply honey, we usually ensure we are present at the ground during harvesting time, this enables us to ensure that the produce is not contaminated and is of high quality,” he said.

Harvested honey is then taken to the government chemist to ascertain the quality. In this, a farmer is paid after his/her honey is certified to be fit for consumption.

Farmers can contact Mutunga on +254 724 771 202.

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: 22 May 2019; Hits: 9939

Orphaned passion fruit farmers in Machakos find strength by coming together

passion fruits Part of a passion fruit farm of one of the farmers in Mwingi, Machakos County. Photo courtesy.

Some five yellow passion fruit farmers from Mwingi in Machakos County who were left as orphans in 2018 by a non-government organization which entice them into the venture opted out have found strength by coming together enabling them to source agronomical services and better market for their produce.

The organization had given the farmers funds to buy farm inputs, for labour and other expenses in 2017 March but after the whole process, it left without notice leaving the farmers stranded with their crops which were almost maturing.

“These farmers were left on their own some few weeks to harvesting the fruits for the market without any information on where to sell their produce and more painfully about the market price which could expose them to unscrupulous middlemen,” said Margaret Mutheu, an agribusiness entrepreneur who chipped in for help.

Mutheu who is also a pawpaw and passion fruits farmer at Kaewa few kilometres from Mwingi where the farmers operate from, first heard about them when one of the farmers reached out to her for help in sourcing market for his produce.

Given her good market connection with some companies and juice blenders in Nairobi, Mutheu accepted to help the farmer only to realise that the area where the farmer comes, were some other farmers who were also in passion fruit production.

“To me, this was good news as I could find enough fruits for my ever demanding market and better in terms of economy of scale. I have many markets to supply and sometimes I am forced to reject or put forward some orders as I cannot satisfy them at ago,” said Mutheu.

She therefore decided to organize the farmers in a group where they would produce and gather their fruits together at one point for ease of collection. In this group, she also offers them agronomical support by sourcing an agronomist who visits the farmers occasionally.

The farmers who have been harvesting their fruits for a month now are producing up to one tonne in a week with each farmer producing between 50 and 100 kilos of passion fruits.

The fruits are then ferried to Nairobi via public means at a cost of Sh1,000 a trip and this has been cost effective for the growers.

A kilo of the yellow passion fruit goes at Sh150 translating to between Sh7,500 and Sh15,000 per farmer per week.

“We expect to earn about Sh3m at the end of this season and this I believe will motivate the farmers into even increasing the acreage under production for more income as there is now no worries about market,” said Mutheu.

The agri-entrepreneur is now thinking of putting up fruits processing plant in the area to help farmers find a ready market for their produce.

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