PIXIE ORANGE FARMING, CHANGING FORTUNES OF MAKUENI FARMERS
By Steven Mulanda
For a long time, Makueni County has been known as a haven for growing Mangos but in the recent past, pixie mandarin orange has gained track. This is a small fruit that is of a spherical shape, flattened at the top and bottom. It has a yellow-orange rough rind that is easy to peel. The fruit is orange in colour, seedless, mild sweet pleasant flavor, and juicy. The tree grows up to 4 meters tall and 3 meters in radius forming a nice canopy. They are propagated through grafting and they are from the Mandarin or Tangerine family of citrus fruits
John Kaleli Mbandi started off farming at a tender age in Muthyoi village near Wote town engaging in Mango farming but his attention was drawn to pixie orange farming in 2015 when he got wind from his village mate Peter Mwaka who was growing the fruit and thus how his pixie farming journey began. The story goes that Peter Mwaka while on a trip in Califonia in USA noticed the fruit and later on imported a few scions from South Africa and set up his orchard in Makueni. He later began grafting seedlings with lemon rootstock and neighbors began purchasing the seedlings.
According to Kaleli, growing and grafting pixie is lucrative business. It’s a profitable crop to grow in Makueni County since it has a higher demand for both the seedlings and the fruits. “Grafted pixie seedlings also have a good demand in the market; a seedling sells at Ksh 200. The price of the fruit at farm gate is usually Ksh 100 per kilogram. It is a lucrative business because thefamer dictates the prices. Multinational companies usually visit us to buy the fruits and also locally we sell to middlemen,” Says Kaleli.
Besides Makueni County, pixie oranges can be grown even in arid and semi-arid areas of Machakos, Kitui, Baringo and the coastal regions of Kwale and Kilifi. The dalliance of the fruit with arid and semi arid areas makes it sweet and nutritious.The market factors are also in itsfavor. Currently the demand for these juicy fruits is so high because of their higher quality and sweetness compared to other varieties of oranges. On the other hand, supply is still very low as most farmers discovered this variety few years ago.Data obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture shows two years ago, Makueni farmers earned Sh595 million from pixies, the highest amount in all the counties that grow the fruit. Makueni also increased acreage under pixies, from 622 to 2,296 hectares, surpassing counties such as Kilifi which had the highest acreage in 2018. This has established Makueni as one of Kenya’s top suppliers of citrus fruit. Makueni area has very good deep sandy loam soils, trainable local youths and women, availability of unexploited land for farming, and proximity to Nairobi makes the area ideal for planting
“I have never been in employment. Pixie farming gave me job security and economically empowered me to take care of my family needs and pay school fees for my children. I have also benefitted from training on new age farming which I hope to apply in my farm,” says Shadrack Muthoka one of the sons of John Kaleli.
Most farmers delving in pixie farming are either diversifying with mangoes & oranges while others are running away from the frustrations meted on them by mango farming. Mangoes and oranges in the area are high yieldingsometimes resulting in glut and low prices while others rot in the farm leading to farmers incurring losses and thus pixel has been godsend.
“The good thing with pixie is an all round crop meaning we can be able to harvest throughout the year. We normally not water them when the season ends which induces stress on the plant. After two weeks of such we water and spray them with bio-stimulants which leads to them starting to flower again, Mzee Kaleli expounded. A well tended pixie plant starts flowering at the age of 2 years.
The production of good quality Pixie fit for the market is dependent on various factors. First Mzee Kaleli has sort the assistance of an agronomist who guides them on chemical application and control of pests and diseases. For instance, Makueni being relatively dry area, insurgence of thrips is high and they can wipe out the entire production in a single day when not controlled.
Secondly as the plant requires water throughout and having a reliable source of water for farming the crop is ideal.Pixie orange trees grow fast and their branches spread wide. For this reason, it is best to plant the trees with a spacing of 6m to 6m from one tree to the next while 5m is the spacing between lines. The lines should be uniform. This allows for the penetration of maximum amount of sunshine especially during flowering and fruiting stages.
The challenge he has encountered in farming pixie is high cost of fertilizers and chemicals. In addition high costs of fuel are draining his pockets because here relies on water pumps to draw water from a borehole to irrigate the plants.“My main aim was to master the art of growing this fruits and i have lived to that. My next target in the coming years will be to start selling the fruits mys in the markets and if possible do value addition. Mzee Kaleli concluded
