Agrico EA: Multiplying Farmers Fortunes One Potato Seed at a Time
Since 2012, Potato Services Africa trading under the name Agrico East Africa has been providing quality imported potato seeds from Agrico in the Netherlands. The Netherlands produces 70% of the potato seeds sold across the world. Agrico East Africa has license to multiply 13 varieties of potato seed from the company in Netherlands. These are: Ambition, Arizona, Arnova, Carolus, Destiny, Faluka, Kuroda, Manitou, Markies, Rudolph, Saviola, Toluca and Zafira.
The company is however concentrating on introducing four varieties at the moment. These are Destiny, Manitou, Markies and Rudolph. This strategy to introduce the first four varieties slowly makes sure that the farmer don’t get overwhelmed with all 13 varieties at once.
Destiny is an early variety that takes about 90 days to mature. It has good heat tolerance (in the field) and high dry matter content and is thus good for crisping. Manitou is a late maturing variety that takes 100 days. It’s well suited for chips/ fries and table consumption. It has big tubers and a soft shiny skin. It is attractive to look at and is loved by supermarkets.
Markies is a very late maturing variety that takes 120 days in the field. It is most popular with fast food joints for making chips / fries. It is well suited for cooler areas of the country because of some late blight tolerance. It has an oval shape. Rudolph is a mid-season variety that takes 95 days. It is the easiest to grow and is best suited as a table variety for cooking in stews, making mukimo (mashed maize, beans, greens and potatoes). It is also good for roasting / baking. It grows all over the country with relative ease. It has long stability as it can be stored for up to 6 months under the right conditions.
The biggest misconception about potatoes according to Corien Herweijer, the marketing manager at Agrico EA, is that they only do well in cold high altitudes like Nyandarua County. However, the company is introducing varieties that do well in warmer and lower altitude climates too. All the Agrico varieties are grown at sea level (0 MASL) in Holland, and in some cases even below sea level since some parts of the country lie below the sea level.
Corien counts quality seeds among five of the most important factors that determine good yields. Their seeds are certified by KEPHIS for onward sale to farmers. The registration process of seed varieties involves the national performance trials where the potato seeds are planted for 3 consecutive seasons and they have to outperform local varieties by at least 10%, among others. Seed is the biggest determinant of the farmers’ yields, and therefore farmers should not hesitate to invest in high-quality certified seeds each growing cycle, in order to keep their yields up and not expose themselves to diseases.
The other four factors that she considers important to great yields are soil testing & customized nutrition (fertilizer), integrated pest management, farm management and water (either rain or irrigation). In terms of soil, “we always recommend that our farmers have their soils tested” she says “this is to determine the nutrients that are lacking in the soil and how to do correction with fertilizers. But also to rule out soil-borne diseases.” She cautions farmers against just treating the soil without knowing what it lacks. “I know that farmers are used to just putting D.A.P, and especially when government subsidizes it, they feel that they have to take advantage” she says, “but this increases the acidity in the soil which is bad for potatoes” she continues. Once tested, the recommendations tell you what blends to use.
Pest and disease management is the next factor. “You have to do your spray regime religiously, the same way you go to church every week to pray, you should go to the shamba (farm) every week to spray” she advices. The fourth factor is good agronomical practices or good farm management. This involves knowing how and when to do weeding, tilling, fertilizers and harvesting. Many farmers do not realize that potatoes need one foot of loose soil to grows well. It is advisable to plant in ridges instead of in the furrow. Ridges protect the potatoes from extreme weather, and make it easier to harvest since you know exactly where the potato tubers are.
The last factor is water. Water is a big determinant of the yields for a potato farmer, since potatoes consist of ¬80% water! This looks at how well the potatoes are watered, either rain-fed or through irrigation. Ridges are useful when it rains and floods because the potatoes will be in the raised ridge and thus don’t get water logged.
Agrico EA is preparing to sell 750 tonnes of potato seeds in September 2019 (subject to KEPHIS approval). Corien advices farmers to form cooperatives so that as a group they can buy quality seeds from the company’s farm in Nakuru. This will ease transport costs since they will pool together. It will also give them a better negotiating power with their buyers, the offtakes of potatoes, when they have a bigger volume of the same potato variety to sell. Furthermore, Agrico EA is interested to train and engage with farmers that are organized in cooperatives, to ensure they get the best yields possible out of their (seed) investment.
One big challenge she has noticed with Kenyan farmers is that they harvest prematurely. “You need to wait for the foliage and stems to dry up before harvesting” she recommends. This is because well fed plants can add up to one tonne of weight per hectare per day during the final stages, so waiting till the last possible minute is beneficial.
To tell if the potatoes are ready for harvesting, dig up one tuber, rub the skin with your fingers and if the skin peels off, then the crop is not yet ready for harvesting. When the potatoes are harvested prematurely, their sugar levels are still high as it hasn’t been completely converted to starch. When a prematurely harvested potato is fried, it turns brown which is terrible for crisp or chips processors. The advantage of waiting for maturity is that hardened potato skin also suffers less damage during storage and transportation and is less prone to bacterial infections.’
Corien’s advice for government is to set up a good investment climate so that companies, counties or NGOs can put up storage facilities for potatoes, both ware and seed. This would bring the seeds closer to the farmers’ locality. Potatoes are a ‘wet’ seed that needs to be kept in a climate and humidity-controlled environment, unlike a ‘dry’ seed like maize which can more easily be stored in any agrovet. So there has been a challenge in distribution, getting the seeds to the thousands of smallholder farmers spread all over the country. The company has its own high end storage facility that can keep the seeds fresh for up to 9 months. Other storage methods are charcoal stores and ambient stores. Ambient stores are insulated stores that are opened at night to let in cold air and closed during the day to trap in the cold night air and keep out hot daytime air – they work best at >2000 MASL.
Another recommendation from Corien is continuous training of KEPHIS and agricultural extension staff who perform field inspections and also to be able to train more farmers. This is necessary to increase Kenya’s potato output / acre, which is lower than that of Tanzania and Uganda. We in fact import potatoes from Tanzania most of the time. She also calls for more seed multiplier companies to come into the market and help with the uptake of certified seeds which stands at only 2-3% of all potato farmers.
