Blossoming Potatoes at Ms. Priscilla Wambui’s Farm
Ms Priscilla Wambui said the cost of production per acre was between Sh30,000 to Sh40,000, giving her between 7 and 10 tonnes of potato per acre.
After some months of perseverance, hard work, and risk-taking, potato farmers from parts of Nyandarua County are now smiling to the banks. Their dreams for contract farming, and eliminating brokers have finally materialized. The contracted farmers are selling their produce in kilograms, against the exploitative 150kg bags imposed by the brokers.
This success was not a walk in the park, but a painful journey that required strict adherence to newly introduced farming technologies, which have resulted in increased production from between 7 tonnes and 10 tonnes per acre to between 40 and 50 tonnes.
The increased production has also come with higher costs of production compared to what the farmers traditionally invested in a one-acre farm.
Still, unlike in the past when farmers visited the farms, when necessary, with the new technologies, it was full-time employment, a relationship akin to that of a shopkeeper to her shop.
Ms Jane Karugu, a farmer from Shamata ward in the Ndaragua constituency says with the new technology, the cost of production per acre has increased from Sh30,000 to Sh80,000.
“I was really scared at the mention of the cost of production, the margins are imaginable, but I was encouraged projected cost of productions and the streamlined market systems,” said Ms Karugu. Using the former method of farming, Ms Karugu harvested about 10 tonnes of potato which she sold to brokers in 150kg bags at between Sh800 and Sh1,000 per bag, earning her an average of Sh65,000 per acre per season.
At Ol Joro Orok, Ms Priscilla Wambui said the cost of production per acre was between Sh30,000 to Sh40,000, giving her between 7 and 10 tonnes of potato per acre. With the new technologies, she is among contracted farmers selling to identified processors at Sh25 per kilo of potato.
“I am expecting a harvest of between 40 tonnes and 50 tonnes going by the average number of potatoes per plant. Initially, each plant produced a maximum of seven potatoes compared to an average of 25 pieces of potatoes per plant,” said Ms Wambui.
If she manages 40 tonnes of the produce and sells at the contracted Sh25 per kilo, Ms Wambui expects to earn handsomely from her four-acre potato farm.
The farmers from Ol Kalou, Mirangine, Ol Joro Orok, Kipipiri, and Ndaragua regions are contracted by neighborhood Freshmatt Limited and Redgate Limited, both companies buying Panamera and Shangi varieties at Sh25 per kilo.
The growers are the first batch beneficiaries of the Potato Revolution Programme, funded by the Irish Government, in an agreement signed with Nyandarua County Government in March. The entire production process starts with land preparation with critical components such as soil testing previously ignored by farmers.
“Soil testing guides the farmer on the type of fertilizers to apply, time, and amount. But eight bags of fertilizer are recommended per acre. Four at planting and four at top dressing 6 weeks after planting,” says the project coordinator Mr Patrick Boro.
Before then, most farmers applied one and a half bags to 2 bags of fertilizer per acre at planting. Mr Boro says the cost of land preparation per acre is Sh15,000 for mechanized farming and Sh20,000 for manual land preparations.
Before the training, Ms Wambui used to plant 6 to 8 bags of locally sourced potato seeds. This season, she increased the seeds to 6 bags per acre with an additional Sh5,000 for soil testing.
“The average cost of production per acre using the new technologies is Sh80,000 up to harvesting, but can sometimes go up to Sh100,000 if there are other requirements like Instant Liming which is done in four intervals at Sh1, 750 per liming,” says Mr Boro.
Ms Wambui says the biggest challenge is the high cost of farm inputs due to taxation by the government.
“A bag of fertilizer retails and Sh6, 000, Sh4, 500 per bag of certified seeds, Sh5, 000 for pests and disease control, where one must use recommended inputs. We were lucky the county government had subsidized fertilizer at Sh1,500, but it was not enough as most farmers got an average of 2 bags each,” said Ms Wambui.
She appeals to the county government to initiate a crop advance program or an agricultural revolving fund in favor of the farmers for subsidized fertilizer and other inputs.
The farmers also want the county government to operationalize the Sh100 million storage plant to caution farmers during glut during the peak season when brokers take advantage of uncontracted growers.
The storage plant was construction in Ol Kalou town was constructed about three years ago and officially opened by President William Ruto about a year ago, but farmers are yet to benefit from the facility. Nyandarua Agriculture and Livestock executive Mr Francis Miring’u is optimistic about improved potato production, noting that the government has started certified seed multiplication at Ol Joro Orok Agricultural College.
