Dwindling returns in coffee, pyrethrum and
cotton, led most of them to diversify
to end their misery after years of living in abject poverty.
With poor and delayed returns saw hundreds of growers shifting to fast
maturing crops.
Efforts by the government to revive
these crops are yet to bear fruits and this have forced some farmers to look
for alternative ventures to generate money. Avocado farming is one
of the ventures which many farmers are running into for better returns.
Robert Mburu from Kihumbu ini village Gatanga, Murang'a moved to avocado farming and does not regret due to huge profit he makes at the end of the season.
After getting frustrated with
coffee, Mburu a former laboratory technician in Kiambu returned home to try his
new venture.
Presently he is among hundreds of
the farmers in Central Kenya getting the best returns from the fruit farming.
"I had three acres of coffee
but I ditched it to try something else which would give better returns" he
said.
As time went by he added more trees
this time incorporating other varieties and today he has 2100 trees planted on
eight acres. He has divided his farm into three blocks which makes it
easier to manage the fruits.
He has majored on the Hass
avocado which has various varieties among them giant, Pinkerton, silver
and reed.
"Every rainy season I plant
about 300 trees and that's how I have managed to get to this number" he
said.
Mburu said there cannot be another
crop which can pay better than avocado terming it as a lucrative venture.
He said the trees require minimal
maintenance and thus it is less tedious giving one time to attend to other
duties.
He said the growth and productivity
of the tree depends on how best you nurture it.
He however says organic farming is
the way to go for one to be able to realize better results and this is also the
recommended for the international market standards.
"Pinkerton matures very fast,
in nine months one can start harvesting but the best thing is to prune the
budding flowers to allow the tree to get to one year" he said.
"The other varieties mature in
three years’ time and the production increases with time” added Mburu.
The farmer says in one harvesting
season he can fill up one and half 40 feet container.
He sells his fruits to various
companies that mainly deal with avocado export.
"I have signed a pact with
various companies to whom I sell my produce to at an agreed price" he
said.
Mburu said this is a venture that
everybody should explore pointing out that after planting a tree, you will
continue harvesting for many years.
Avocado farming is however not
without challenges, with fruit fly and black spots being the common enemy to
the farmer. He said he uses insect traps and organic chemical to deal with
them.
He holds an award of the avocado
farmer of the year 2019. He emerged the best among the small scale farmers in
the country.
Mburu said avocado is the green
gold for the farmers in the county and the future for this venture is
promising.
“If we don’t have cartels invading
the sector the farmer is assured of getting the rightful dues for the crop and
this is bound to be a source of livelihood for thousands of people” he
remarked.
Murang’a is the leading avocado
producing county with the country with over 80 percent of the fruits exported
coming from the area.
The county government has
been making efforts to boost avocado farming by distributing seedlings to the
locals where in the past one year over one million seedlings have been given
out.
The county has engaged farmers into
contract farming and this has seen them reap huge from the venture. Close to
200,000 farmers have ventured into avocado farming.
Kenya is the world’s third largest
producers of avocado with its major market being in China and Europe.
The locals county assembly had
formulated a bill which was aimed to be regulate avocado farming but this was
met by fierce resistance by the brokers who claimed that they are being edged
out of the business.
On the other hand the farmers said
the bill spells good hope for them as it will protect them from the
unscrupulous dealers.
The bill dubbed Murang'a County
Avocado Processing and Marketing Bill has 2020 is aimed at providing guidelines
for the regulations of the avocado crop production standards, processing and
marketing.
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