Smart farms

: 13 August 2021; Hits: 9808

Mango flakes exporter helps farmers reduce seasonal losses

Sunsweet factory

By George Munene

Simon Musyoka invested up to Sh8 million in setting up the Sunsweet factory in Kitui Central that processes mangoes into flakes for export to the United States. The factory has helped farmers avoid the usual losses they experience every mango season.

Sunsweet buys mangoes from farmers at a minimum price of Sh15 per kilogram which is recommended by the Kitui County government; this represents a fairer value to the three shillings per piece gotten from brokers.

The factory also sources mangoes from Lamu, and Kilifi counties.

The mangoes are processed into flakes that fetch up to Sh500 per kilogram to the Sh15 gotten from raw mangoes

“I started drying mangoes with expertise I got on value addition from training at Jomo Kenyatta University. As I have some 100 trees I have to source most of my mangoes from other farmers,” says Musyoka. He also encourages mango farmers to form cooperatives to be able to sell their produce at scale which gives them greater bargaining power.

The mangoes are harvested from farms and brought in by farmers to the factory where they are washed and put into cold rooms. They are then taken to the factory for peeling, slicing, and solar drying.

“We are taking advantage of the Ukamabani sunshine, often seen as a problem to farmers, but can be tapped for fruit and vegetable drying. Mango flakes are a unique offering that we hope will give us an edge in both the local and international markets; juices compete with a lot of other drinks in the market. Our flakes will soon be on the market and we hope as people eat chips and crisps, they also give the nutritious Kitui mango flakes a bite,” says Dr.Temi Mutia, a value chain addition specialist at Kitui.

“We are also holding training of trainers teaching camps for select members of ten farmer cooperatives with up to 4,000 members drawn throughout the county with close to 80,000 mango trees. The TOTs are then expected to train members at their cooperative level on cultivation and harvesting best practices as well as proper handling and transportation of mangoes post-harvest.

The factory is privately owned but has been incorporated as part of a joint JKUAT, Kitui County, and European Union Sustainable Transition to Entrepreneurial Production in Agriculture through Upgrading (STEP-UP) project. The program hopes to realise ways of adding value to mangoes; given the usual bulk production over a single season that results in a market glut which as well as poor post-harvest storage methods, leads to losses of up to 50 percent of the fruit produced in the county.

Sunsweet Fruit farm: +254-723324199

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: 13 August 2021; Hits: 7038

Integrating trees into farms offers extra income & regenerates soils

By George Munene

Syntropic agriculture/successional agroforestry is an integrated farming approach that involves the growing of marketable fruit and wood trees coupled with productive agricultural food sources. It helps regenerate soil biodiversity without the application of any chemical inputs.

This farming model was originated by Swiss farmer Ernst Götschin. Settling in the 1980s in a degraded area of Brazil's Bahía State that had been cleared for logging then abandoned, he has been able to restore the previously barren and unculturable 350 hectares into a dense forest interspersed with bananas and cocoa that provides a handsome return.

Wood trees are grown along the farm making a 'live' hedge-fodder fence and boundary that act as a windbreaker. They also improve the farm's humidity which benefits both the crops and fruit trees grown in the farm interior.

They also provide the farmer with a long-term income stream from the sale of tree wood products. Other benefits include acting as nurse trees that shelter interior trees and crops, fix soil nitrogen, and provide organic biomass from falling leaves.

Short-term cover crops provide the farmer with seasonal income. They also offer live mulch to growing fruit trees and in the case of leguminous crops nitrogen fixation.

A diverse array of commercial fruit trees is grown in the interior of the farm providing a revenue source for farmers throughout the year-when one fruit is off-season, the next is in.

The trees have diversified flowering patterns; pollen for food forest pollination is therefore readily available which increases fruit yield production as well as providing sufficient nectar and pollen for bees. Farmers are therefore encouraged to set up hives to supplement their incomes.

The fruit trees also offer partial shade to the seasonal crops, especially in harsh hot weather.

This diversity in syntropy farming ensures the farm is economically viable and sustainable with internally built insurance against single crop failure.

In Kenya, this method of farming is in use at scale in Tamalu Farm in Timau, Kenya.

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: 12 August 2021; Hits: 7355

Farmers develop disease & drought-tolerant coffee varieties through grafting

Coffee farming

By George Munene

Grafting refers to the joining of the upper part of a plant (scion) to part of the stem and the root system (rootstock) of another plant. The horticultural technique is being employed by Kenyan coffee farmers to develop disease and drought-tolerant varieties.

"Most coffee farms are inherited, therefore the trees grown are early coffee varieties such as the SL28 and SL34 which are highly susceptible to the major coffee diseases; Coffee Berry Disease and Coffee Leaf Rust, " said Bornface Gitonga, a third-generation coffee farmer at Meru. "Earlier coffee varieties do however hold value in that they were bred to be drought resistant; their roots burrow deep into the soil and they still bear fruit even when their water intake is minimal."

For the scion, Bornface, like most other coffee farmers in the region, opted for Ruiru 11. This cultivar was developed by the Ruiru based Coffee Research Institute in 1985 in response to the Coffee Berry Disease and Coffee Leaf Rust outbreaks that devastated coffee farms in the 1960s. Additionally, Ruiru 11 begins to bear fruit in just 1½ years as opposed to the two years taken by older coffee strains.

"Despite its positives, Ruiru 11 has one major drawback: its roots are much shallow compared to earlier coffees like SL28. Its yield drops significantly if it goes without being watered," Bornface explains.

To counter this he uses SL28 as his rootstock. He's, therefore, able to merge the best attributes of the two into a single plant releasing a sort of 'super coffee' cultivar that is drought tolerant yet resistant to the most damaging coffee diseases.

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