Smart farms

: 01 December 2017; Hits: 48699

Star farmer: Narok tomato farmer earns Sh3m form his wooden greenhouses

wooden greenhouse.jpg

A constructed wooden greenhouse by Greenhouse Kenya company (+254723053026).

A Narok County tomato farmer is earning over three million shillings in a season at his own home-made wooden greenhouses, lowering his production cost by Sh110, 000.

Geoffrey Rono’s four greenhouse measuring 16 x 40 meters are made from timber and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). A greenhouse cost him a maximum of Sh250, 000 to construct rather than Sh360,000 he would have used to construct a metal greenhouse of the same size.

“I learnt this technique from a friend in my neighbourhood while I was selling fodder crops in 2016. The friend was practicing tomato farming in simply wooden constructed greenhouses,” said Rono.

“I then embarked to construct my own and when complete I bought Anne F1 tomato variety seeds from Amiran Kenya Company at Sh11 per seed using up to Sh11, 000 to buy 1000 seeds for a start.”

Before planting he conducted a soil test to determine his soil condition at Sh2500 saving him some money as the test established the soil could be productive applying manure rather than synthetic fertilizers.

“I am using manure in my tomato farming since I started following the advice I got from soil testing experts and this has saved me between Sh1, 500 and Sh1,800, which I could be spending on a 50kg bag of fertilizer every planting season,” he said.

RELATED NEWS: Greenhouse options and costs in Kenya

Currently, he is harvesting tomatoes from two of his greenhouses while the rest are set to be harvested later.

Rono who sells a crate of tomatoes at Sh2500, earns over Sh500 from only one plant of tomato and with his big greenhouses which can accommodate over 1500 seedlings each, he can earn Sh750, 000 from one greenhouse translating to Sh3m from the four greenhouses per season.

“I harvest one to six fruits per cluster of my tomato pants giving me about 800 fruits per plant a year,” said Rono.

To avoid unscrupulous middlemen, he sells his tomatoes directly to traders who come to his farm or sometimes supply to traders in Narok Town.

Find greenhouse options and costs in Kenya here https://goo.gl/mRgz3Z or find Rono for advice or for tomatoes on +254723688101.

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Tuesday, 17 August 2021 [quote=Nalo]Wow....is it possible to be done in siaya[/quote] Hi Nalo, find gre...

Monday, 10 May 2021 Wow....is it possible to be done in siaya

Friday, 19 March 2021 I love this it's incredible

: 30 November 2017; Hits: 26525

Nandi farmer: I earn Sh20, 000 in a week from pineapple farming

Salome Saina earns Sh20, 000 a week from pineapple farming in her three acre farm in Lolkeringet location Nandi County, a fruit she decided to cultivate 10 years ago after abandoning maize farming.

Kenya at a good place to bridge France's dire need of pineapples

“I used to plant maize but the production was low, yielding between eight to 10 bags per acre which could not be commercialized but since I ventured into pineapple farming I have been generating income every week,” said Salome.

“Pineapple farming is a lucrative business that requires approximately Sh5000 as capital investment but gives high returns with minimal management as they thrive in periods of long dry spells and are rarely affected by pests and diseases.”

Salome Saina holding a pineapple sucker which she sells at Sh10/PHOTO/FARMBIZ AFRICA

Maize is only harvested once because of its long maturity period thus it proved an expensive venture for the farmer. Also, she spent always roughly Sh30, 000 on an acre to purchase seeds, fertilizers, ploughing land and purchasing of chemicals to control weeds.

Pineapples grow well in areas such as Kericho, Nandi, Thika and parts of Western Kenya, where the altitude ranges from 100metres to 1800metres above sea level with rainfall ranges from 600mm to about 1500mm annually. The crop does well in soils with high murram content as they allow for aeration than those with high clay content.

Salome started the venture in 2007, planting over 500 seedlings in an eighth of an acre after purchasing the suckers for Sh10 from a neighbour. She applied 10 wheelbarrows of farm yard manure and planted using the double row system which makes it easier to manage and also gives higher yields.

It took roughly nine months for the fruits to mature and yield the first fruits which she sold at between Sh20 and Sh50 depending on the size. Proceeds were used to cultivate and widen the size of the land under pineapples. As pineapples grow they develop suckers which Salome transplanted to the rest of her three acre farm with the help of her children.

“Before planting, sorting should be done to separate slips, suckers and trash, only healthy suckers should be used for planting and the defective ones removed to ensure uniformity”

It is important to weed the plants regularly to ensure maximum production; calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) can also be added at the rate of one bag per acre once in a year to promote growth and development of important plant tissues. One bag of CAN costs Sh1800 to Sh2100 in various agro vets.

Salome now harvests more than 200 fruits in a week which she sells at various markets within Nandi County including Kabiyet, Mosoriot, and Kaiboi. Each fruit is now sold at between Sh30 to Sh80 depending on the size but if the fruit is cut and sold in pieces the returns are high fetching more than Sh150. This endeavor earns her over Sh20, 000 in a good week.

The farmer also sells pineapple suckers to prospective farmers at Sh10 per sucker.

In this, she has been able to educate her children comfortably besides earning income to sustain her family’s livelihood.

She can be reached on +254 707411042

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Friday, 25 June 2021 Where do you buys suckers?

Friday, 15 January 2021 I like it,I started planting yesterday

: 29 November 2017; Hits: 12019

ICIPE turns to farmer groups in Western Kenya to spread ‘push-pull’ technology

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Sorghum intercropped with desmodium in a push-pull technology which is appropriate and economical to the resource-poor smallholder farmers in the region as it is based on locally available plants.

Small holder farmer groups in Western Kenya have increased their crop production by over 50 per cent by using push-pull technology to kill pests, an impact that has led to International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) to shift its focus on how to enhance further adoption of the technology in the region.

Push-pull technology, has been in existence for over 20 years however, it has been slowly adopted by smallholder farmers due to lack of knowledge making ICIPE shift focus on farmer groups to reach more farmers by training them about the technology to help them reduce pest infection and increasing crop production in districts of Homa Bay, Mbita and Butere.

Annette Taaka, a farmer in Busia County started maize farming using push-pull technology in 2015 on a 50x50m section of a farm which had been abandoned because of striga weeds infection. In the first season she harvested three and a half 90kg bags of maize and in the subsequent season the yields rose to seven 90kg bags.

This has since motivated her and she has decided to spread the use of the technology in growing other crops such as millet, groundnuts, beans and sesame in her two acres of land. She learnt about the technology from ICIPE technician Romanus Odhiambo in the county.

Her success in applying push-pull technology has attracted the global centre to use her farm as a push-pull learning site. In the past two years 125 farmer group leaders were trained on its use.

Patroba Obonyo, ICIPE field worker in Homa Bay district woks with 25 groups of farmers every planting season. He demonstrates push-pull technology to each group and visits them across the season to monitor their progress. “After demonstrations I leave farmers to mobilise themselves to bring more farmers on board while from time to time I visit them for any necessary assistance,” said Obonyo.

In Butere district, there are 30 groups of 10 farmers each, which makes service easier for ICIPE field worker Philip Andanje who offers them training equipping them with the necessary skills on push-pull.

Rispa Ouso is a farmer from Suba district. She planted her first push-pull plot of maize in 1998 assisted by an ICIPE technician in the area. This improved her yields which saw her produce surplus maize for ale to support her higher education. She later became a push-pull farmer-teacher enabling her to reach more than 25 groups of farmers in Mbita and Nyando districts.

Push-pull technology was developed by scientists at ICIPE in Kenya and Rothamsted Research, in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with other national partners. IT has attracted over 147,505 smallholder farmers in East Africa where maize yields have increased from appreoximately a tonnes per hectares to 3.5 tonnes per hectares, achieved with limited farm inputs as the technology uses locally available plants.

To address the challenge of seeds shortage of desmodium, which is one of the key crops used in push-pull technology, in 2003 ICIPE began working with Kitale-based Western Seed Company and Kenya Seed Company in Bungoma which contract farmers to grow the seeds for sale.

With proper management practices, a piece of plot measuring 5 x 50m can yield eight kilograms of desmodium seeds. Kenya Seed Company pays farmers Sh1000 for each kilogram for the seeds. A farmer needs only 2kg of desmodium seeds per acre which can yield 30 to 60 kg of seed when harvested.

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