Smart farms

: 27 April 2018; Hits: 17506

County milk factory that provides constant milk price for farmers

Muranga County Creameries One of the 35 cooling plant installed in Murang'a County for milk processing. Farmers delivering milk to Murang'a County Creamaries have been earning a stable price of Sh35 per litre of milk with hope of improvement. Photo courtecy.

Murang’a County dairy farmers have for four years now been enjoying a constant price of Sh35 per litre of milk they deliver to the county milk processing plant with assurance of improvements as compared to other farmers who sell to other milk companies where price of the commodity keeps on fluctuating.

The Murang’a County Creameries (MCC) has been collecting milk from farmers affiliated to the 28 dairy co-operative societies since it was formed in late 2014 and now the county government-negotiated agreement will continue seeing the farmers secure stable milk prices.

Other milk processors such as Kenya Co-operative Creameries (New KCC) and Brookside Dairies have been paying different prices per litre of milk depending on production and supply of the commodity at a given time.

The two firms have in different times offered farmers Sh26, Sh35, Sh42, Sh43 and currently Sh37 per litre of milk delivered with no assurance that the current price will stand or improved.

“We have agreed with all the stakeholders that milk prices would not go below Sh35 and would only be adjusted upwards whenever prices improve,” said Julius Maina, the MCC chairman.

This agreement has since seen dairy farming emerge as a commercial venture in many households, especially after the county government supported farmers with coolers. The county has 35 milk coolers installed in all milk production areas within the county.

Farmers are paid their dues after every end month.

RELATED STORY: Dairy farmers milk millions with cooperative

However, this still makes the MCC incomplete due to lack of funds despite equipment worth Sh250m being brought in last year.

“We hope that the plant will be completed in the current financial year, 2017/2018 after members of the county assembly started giving it more attention and priority,” said Maina.

The Murng’a County plant can process 20,000 litres of milk per hour, farmers deliver 150,000 litres per day while the rest of the milk comes from MCC’s 36 dairy saccos across the county.

The plant has enabled farmers to add value to their produce and earn more money. Some more products expected to be manufactured from the company include yoghurt, cheese, powdered milk and long and semi-long life packed milk.

Murang’a has about 43,000 dairy farmers. The farmers have since registered an increase in production from 5,000 litres to 127,000 litres a day on high investments.

Contracted milk transporters are charging two shillings per kilo further helping in cutting down losses by collecting the produce from farmers and delivering it to the coolers.

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: 26 April 2018; Hits: 50741

Vanilla farming can earn a farmer Sh16,000 per tree

vanilla bean ready for harvest Gren vanilla beans ready for harvest. They are identified by the pale skin and the yellowing on the tips. Photo courtecy.

Vanilla is one of the orphaned crops by Kenyan farmers yet according to experts the crop can fetch a farmer over sh16,000 per tree if well taken care of. This is because it has a wide areas of application that include flavouring food, drinks, soaps, ointments, perfumes and incenses.

A tree of vanilla can bear up to 80 beans. Only one vanilla bean measuring 10-12 centimetres long goes for Sh200 and given an acre can accommodate over 200 trees, a farmer can be sure of raking Sh3.2m within three years after planting.

“Vanilla has huge monetary value attached to it despite the fact that it is not famous among our own farmers. The crop is well grown in other countries such as Uganda, Comoros and Madagascar in both small and large scale,” said Shabbir Burbar, director of Maimun Ingredients Company which deals in food flavours, food colour, food-grade ingredients and additives for manufacture of food and drink products.

“Farmers may be shying away from the crop because of the duration it takes to mature but most parts of Kenya have the right condition for its cultivation and there is both local and export markets ready upon its maturity.”

According to Burbar, the major export markets for vanilla beans include European countries and the United States though the demand depends on the quality.

“Since 1990s I saw my uncle import vanilla from Madagascar or Uganda but Madagascar vanilla was his favourite because it is of quality than the Ugandan vanilla,” said Burbar.

Vanilla can also be used in baking and dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, and ice creams, and in desserts, chocolates, cookies, pancake and soft cheese.

There are several companies and suppliers in Kenya such as Noble Cause Enterprises in Nakuru, Signature Spice, Katco Ltd in Nairobi, Dahiraan Enterprises Ltd and Risola Foods among others which were dealing in vanilla about 16 years ago but were forced to close up or change to other lines of business due to low supply from farmers.

“I decided to focus on honey production and supply after dropping vanilla several years back because there were less vanilla farmers who could not meet our supply demand and there were no signs of more farmers taking up the venture,” said Mr. Vincent Labatt, Entrepreneur and Owner of Noble Cause Enterprises.

“At a point we started importing from Uganda where there is more vanilla farming with the hope that the situation will improve in kenya but we finally decided to stop vanilla business when we found it was no longer economical importing the produce.”

RELATED ARTICE: African orphaned crops get academy

In October 2015 Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) launched programmes to increase vanilla seedlings, which were scarce, using tissue culture technology. The move was expected to attract more farmers in hot and humid areas like the Coast, lake regions and parts of western Kenya to take up the business.

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron, due to highly labor-intensive methods of cultivation according to a Ugandan news journal.

vanilla plant

Vanila plant with green vanilla beans. Photo courtecy.

In 2000 world vanilla prices experienced a massive spike after acyclone which affected the production of the crop upping vanilla prices to nearly $500 (about Sh50,000)a kilo and led to a rush of new market entrants hoping to take advantage of the now lucrative crop but the price later dropped to as low as $25 (about Sh2,500) a kilo in 2010.

Currently, vanilla prices are increasing again due to drought, fungal attacks and low prices driving many producers out of the market.

An article by the Financial Times on 24th April 2017 revealed that Vanilla Pods were trading at an All Time High price of $600 (about Sh60,000) per Kilogram.

According to an article published in March 2018 by The Globe & Mail, Vanilla prices hit another historical high of USD700 (about 70,000) per Kg mark.

The other orphaned crops silkworms, palm tree and specialty teas.

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: 26 April 2018; Hits: 12730

Government to build small dams for households to collect rain water

The ministry of agriculture and technology has announced plans to build 5,000 water pans for households in the country in a bid to collect surface run-off water this rainy season at a time when dry weather conditions led a decline in overall agricultural production from 10.8 per cent in 2016 to 8.1 per cent in 2016.

The programme is aimed at transforming Kenya from dependence on rain-fed agriculture production to irrigation with research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations showing that only two per cent of the total land under cultivation in sub-Saharan Africa is under modern irrigation systems.

In Kenya, irrigation accounts for only four per cent of the total land under production but contributes three per cent of the GDP and provides 18 per cent the value of al agricultural produce.

Trench water harvesting sustains farm two months after long rains

Water harvesting turns peasant farmer into regional supplier

The ministry reports that intensified irrigation can increase agricultural productivity four-fold and depending on the crops, incomes can be multiplied ten-times.

According to a report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics dependence on rains which were insufficient last year led to a loss of 2.4m bags of maize, the staple food in the country.

The drop in maize production from 37.8m bags in 2016 to 35.4m bags last year was also attributed to infestation by Fall Armyworm, a pest that arrived in Kenya in March 2017 and has since spread to all the maize and wheat growing areas in Kenya such as Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Busia, Bungoma and Kisii among other areas.

Water Pan

Water pan

Besides maize decline, tea and coffee production dropped by seven per cent and 11.5 per cent to 439,800 tonnes and 40,800 tonnes respectively.

To curb this, the ministry will roll out a national agriculture mechanization program in the next seven days to boost crop production by reducing the cost of labor.

In this, farmers all over the country are registered through the county departments of agriculture so as to identify genuine farmers to benefit from government projects such as the water pans, subsidized fertilizer and first priority purchasing of maize at the end of this year’s harvesting season.

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