Framer in Murang’a finds fortune in rare sweet potato variety
Meet Wambui Kiragu. After she was frustrated by the so-called high value crops settled on orange-fleshed and purple fleshed sweet potatoes varieties which are very rarely grown by farmers. She shares her story.
My farming journey began in 2014, immediately I completed studies at the university. I started with onions and capsicum, then ventured into paw paw and water melon business.
Had I known better, I couldn’t avoided the so-called high value crops and instead, could have opted for crops like sweet potatoes which give a fair pace for learning before upgrading.
The big mistake I made was to become a ‘telephone-farmer’ (farmers who remotely run the farm via the telephone). My farm manager would connive with agrovet shops to inflate prices and volume of inputs.
When I got tired of all these challenges, I took a short break to reflect on the big dreams I had when I ventured into farming. Two years later, I tried my luck in again in farming but this time round, settled on sweet potatoes, The crop is not labour intensive and don’t require a lot of farm inputs and water. They have distinct harvesting time and good market value.
After extensive research, I chose orange-fleshed and purple fleshed varieties. I chose orange-fleshed variety known for its nutritious value. It is packed with betacarotene, an important vitamin good for eyesight while the purple fleshed variety has anti-cancer nutrient called anthocyanin. I also learnt that the two varieties were rarely available, making them more expensive compared to other varieties.
I then visited Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) for the seedlings KEPHIS has a tissue culture (TC) lab of sweet potatoes to ensure that farmers get clean and disease-free planting materials.
The plant didn’t disappoint me, after about three and half months, it was ready for harvesting. I initially had challenges marketing the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes because the customers, were mainly the neighbours who would over-cook them and then report that they were soggy, impacting her sales.
I had to introduce cooking lessons to them and since then the business is growing, leading to another challenge! Which was the capacity to meet the quality and quantity requirements.
Up todate, I am still unable to provide consistent volumes to meet the demands of my regular clients, though I am working hard to expand the farm since the demand is there To ensure postharvest losses is minimal, I harvests the produce once the leaves and end of the vines start turning yellow.
If sweet potatoes overstay in the soil, they are exposed to attacks by weevils, which make grooves on the tubers thus lowering their market quality. Also if the tuber overstays in the soil, they also become too big, which is not desirable by the market.
Through online marketing, I have built a big clientele. Most of them are my neighbours in Nairobi, where I lives and works as a researcher in urban food systems. I market the potatoes through neighborhood resident association’s WhatsApp group and also sells through social media platforms, the likes of Digital Farmers Kenya.
I have also linked up with a trader who arranges home grocery deliveries and picks 100kgs every week. Currently I am trying to link up with restaurants as they slowly start picking up from the impacts of Covid-19.
By Malachi Motano
