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: 20 April 2022; Hits: 1140

Sesame buyers turn to neighbours as Kenyan farmers fail to meet demand

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By George Munene

Bryan Kwena has carved a niche for himself as the go-to guy for anyone sourcing sesame in bulk from East Africa. Despite his company, Orgature Sesame Supply Limited, being based in Kenya, he's often forced to source the cereal from Uganda which incurs him an extra cost. But as he explains it; “You can't tell a client you just can't get what they need.”

Sesame, more commonly referred to as simsim by Kenyans, grows best in high temperatures of 26 to 30°C and demands very little water when growing (300-600 mm). This makes it one of the few ideal crops for semi-arid and arid farmers.

“It would be cheaper to source for sesame from local farmers (he often gets what little he can from farmers in Lamu), however, getting the crop in large quantities from Kenyan farmers is often unrealistic,” Bryan said.

Imported agricultural goods are subject to import tax while additional costs are also incurred in freight charges as well as in loading and offloading.

Once Ugandan farmers/ brokers suss out that the buyer is Kenyan their quoted price immediately rises. There is also very little wiggle room in negotiations for Kenyan traders in neighboring markets.

“You’ll close a deal for white sesame only to have brown sesame delivered,” Bryan said in explaining some of the hazards in dealing with someone far removed from you.

Largescale food manufacturers similarly get most of their sesame from neighboring Somalia where the average annual rainfall is about 200 mm in most parts of the country and Ethiopia’s south-eastern and north-eastern lowlands where rainfall averages are less than 300 mm annually. These climatic conditions make the two countries ideal for intensive sesame farming.

Unhulled white sesame, which is little grown and in demand is sold at Sh 210-220/ Kg compared to the more accessible brown sesame which costs Sh170-180.

Kwena works with local buyers and importers as far out as Israel as the global appetite for sesame seeds continues to grow owing to the increased inclination amongst consumers toward more healthy diets. Used to extract oil, and in the making of confectionery, cosmetics, medicines, and pet food, the global market in sesame is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 1.5% between 2020-2027 to $7.56 billion.

Bryan Kwena

Managing Director | CEO

Orgature Sesame Supply Limited

We source and supply Brown | White | Black Sesame

Contact:

+254702148381

+254202148381

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: 07 April 2022; Hits: 3087

Young agripreneur makes big bucks supplying compost to urban growers

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By George Munene

At just 29 years old Ted Gachanga has built a successful agribusiness—Sprout Organic—supplying value-added vermicompost and vermiliquid fertiliser to a lucrative but underserved urban grower market.

Having run for six years now, the business supplies two tons of the organic fertiliser monthly, even setting up shop in upmarket Lavington, Nairobi, to better serve their clients.

“We are focused on a niche client base of urban farmers and gardeners, offering a readily accessible potting mix with vermicompost as the main planting media,” Gachanga explains. They don't have to get their hands soiled and the mixture comes in packaged bags. Unlike most soils, it is well aerated, porous, and doesn't compact. “While a kilogram of raw vermicompost is sold for between Sh 60-100, value addition, home delivery, and our target market allow us to sell our growing media for Sh200.”

The choice to serve this atypical market is also informed by the worms used in vermicomposting being difficult to propagate. This constrains scaling up to serve your everyday farmer.

A Master of Management in Agribusiness holder, Ted was introduced to vermicomposting by his lecturer at Strathmore Business School Dr. Freddie Acosta.

There are two common worms used for vermicomposting; the African Night Crawlers and the Red Wigglers. Wigglers consume more waste and multiply prolifically — one worm births 10 others in 8-12 months.

The worms are fed on non-acidic organic waste. This ensures there's a balance in pH and nutrients and that the refuse is well worked on.

While there is good money to be had in selling earthworms — a kilo goes for Sh3,000 — the farm does this infrequently and only when they need to balance out their worm population.

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Contrary to prevailing beliefs, Gachanga explained that the making of vermicompost is a basic DIY project: The worms are kept in dark confined ground with limited exposure to sun, heat, and light. Their habitat should be moist but not wet. A kilo of worms takes up one square meter; if they are overpopulated, reproduction will be curtailed and the compost will be poorly aerated which will limit plant nutrient uptake.

“Most Kenyan soils are deprived of organic matter, this in turn has led to depreciating yields for farmers. Vermicompost is an example of an organic soil amendment; a substance extremely rich in organic matter, macro and microelements that increases soil fertility by improving its physical properties, such as water retention and infiltration, permeability, drainage, aeration, and structure.

However, unlike synthetic fertilisers, soil amendments aren't a quick fix, and to realise these benefits require continued long-term use,” Ted said.

Sprout Organic: 0701 113380

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: 24 March 2022; Hits: 1058

Ready market & higher returns encourage tobacco farmers shift to beans

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By George Munene

Former tobacco farmers in Migori county are shifting to planting high-iron beans under the World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco-Free Farms project that provides a ready market for their harvest, inputs in seeds and fertilizers as well as farmer training.

Farmer groups participating in the project have thus far sold 135 metric tons of beans to the World Food Programme (WFP), giving them significantly more earnings than they would have gotten from tobacco farming.

The program helps empower the farmers by providing them with long-term markets for food crops allowing them to end contractual tobacco-growing agreements.

The alternative crops grown will also help feed their communities instead of harming their health.

“Tobacco growing farmers must be given the necessary support to switch to alternative crops that have the potential to improve their health and livelihoods as well as reduce the supply of tobacco,” says Dr. Juliet Nabyonga, WHO’s Representative to Kenya. “It’s projects like this that move the needle in the fight against the global tobacco epidemic.”

According to the UN the initiative which also incorporates the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and the Kenyan government has seen hundreds of long-time tobacco farmers switch to alternative crops, plant high-iron beans in fields where only tobacco grew. This has seen farmers' health improve, increased school attendance from children previously working on the farms, and better crops for the environment replacing tobacco.

Kenya is the project’s pilot country, chosen for its continued mobilised efforts to fight the scourge of tobacco.

WHO statistics show that over 6,000 Kenyans die of tobacco-related diseases every year. This number stands at eight million globally every year, with over one million of the deaths caused by second-hand smoke.

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