LUCYPARK FARM: A HUB OF INNOVATION
By Bernard Muhia
For six years, a former Principal who is also a former Member of County Assembly together with a sales and marketing graduate have been trail blazing in the farming sector in Gatundu South. So much has their fire blazed that the President handed them the National farmers award for best small scale farm geared towards commercialization back in 2017. They won the award again in 2018.Michael Kuria Mbugua and his wife Lucy Muthoni are the forces behind LucyPark Farm. It’s a 1.5 acres farm in Ituru, Gatundu South. However, don’t let the size fool you. The farm has greenhouses with tomatoes, Zinghua beans, Pakchoi, passion fruits, hass avocados, sorghum, aerial yams, 9 varieties of bananas, chayote, sukuma wiki (kales), strawberries, spinach and African cape goose berries.
The first crops you see upon entering the compound is Southern Georgia sukuma wiki, fordhook giant pinach and Chandler strawberry. What’s unique about these crops is where they are planted. They are planted in what Lucy, the Managing Director, calls a wonder garden. It consists of a hydroponic polythene liner cut in small long pieces of about 1/2 a foot by 5 feet to 12 feet. They are then made into a circle, bolted at the ends and soil put inside the standing circles.The one at the bottom is the largest circle and they get smaller as they are piled on top of each other until the top circle is half the size of the bottom circle thereby making a soil pyramid. This she says is all about maximizing space through vertical farming.“Farmland is dwindling” she says, “and there is need to ensure food security, and urban farming can help”. They are even bringing in virgin soil from virgin land and manure from Narok at kshs. 70,000 per big lorry.
The level of innovation that Michael and Lucy are putting into the farm is geared towards maintaining the award that they have, because it rotates every three years.To this end, they are really looking into value addition for the products that they produce on the farm. To start off, they have a 138 meters deep borehole from which they want to start processing mineral water for sale. They already have a water kiosk for the neighborhood. For the bananas, Lucy wants to turn them into flour and crisps.The strawberries will be made into a jam, tomatoes made into sauce and vegetables dried and packed.
In terms of fresh produce, Lucy harvests 800kgs per week of the Zinghua beans or Chinese beans just from one greenhouse of 80 by 15 meters. The beans are ready in three months from the time of planting and a kilo goes for Kshs. 150. Several greenhouses are planted with Zinghua at different stages for uninterrupted year round supply. Another Chinese vegetable that also takes three months to mature and that is in high demand is pakchoi which they produce and sell at kshs. 120 per kilo.The demand from Chinese groceries in Nairobi is so great that Michael has enlisted twelve other farmers under the Gatundu Green Farmers Group to be able to produce large quantities and fulfill the orders. The group is also growing tomatoes to be able to meet another order for 4000kgs per week. The group has been going steady for the past three years and it looks like they have hit it rich.
The farm also has banana varieties that are collectively producing 3000kgs every week which they sell at 16-20 shillings per kilo. The varieties that they have planted are Williams, Grand nine, Giant cavedish, Dwarf cavedish, Ng’ombe halisi, Nusu Ng’ombe, Fhia 18, Fhia 17, Sweet banana and Kisii matoke. The farm has eight functional greenhouses and they are currently building two more. Tomatoes and beans take up most of the greenhouse space.The tomatoes are in two varieties: Anna F1 and Terminator. They intend to add broccoli, capsicum and cauliflower in September and there is already a placed order.
Mr. Mbugua was teaching biology and agriculture and at one point the students had grown cabbages that weighed eight kilos each.People were coming from all over to see that wonder. He has since travelled all over on farming related trips to Israel, Ethiopia and Uganda. Some farmers from Namibia also visited his farm and invited him over to their country to teach them about farming. He normally charges ksh. 3000 per person for training sessions.
