- Kefa Makori, an agronomist with Yara East Africa Limited, said they were working with more than 500,000 potato farmers.
- James Kimoi Moi, the director of Kangoy Farm, said the company in collaboration with his far, produces certified potato seeds, which are supplied to farmers.
Image: FILE
Potato farmers from Nakuru, Nyandarua and Narok counties have been trained on the importance of using certified seeds and the right inputs for better quality and bigger yields.
The farmers have also been advised to adopt new potatoes varieties such as Markies, Destiny, Dutch Robin and Java.
The farmer had a field day at Agrico farm in Kabarak where they were taken through the stage by stage of growing-good quality potatoes for export while some of the produce would be processed locally.
Agronomists from Yara East Africa Limited and Agrico PSA taught the farmers the best practices for better production while at the same time linking them with buyers.
Yara’s regional agronomist Kefa Makori said besides providing proper inputs for the farmers, especially fertiliser, the organisation wanted to ensure farmers had market for their produce to reduce post-harvest losses and exploitation from middlemen.
He said Yara offers field officers and digital services to follow-up on their farmers after the initial training to ensure safe use of agro-chemicals.
“The potato varieties we are encouraging the farmers to grow are higher yielding and have longer shelf-life and on top of these two benefits, Yara has ensured there is ready market,” he said.
Makori said they were working with more than 500,000 potato farmers and thousands of others dealing in different crops among them maize, bananas and tomatoes.
He said Yara works with individual large-scale farmers and groups of small-scale producers to enable them to aggregate produce for the market.
“It is difficult for a farmer farming on a one-acre piece of land to produce enough tonnage for either export or local processors and that is why we encourage them to work in group for better market access and ease of logistics,” Makori said.
He added the exotic varieties whose seeds were imported from the Netherlands for propagation here in Kenya can also be used by households.
James Kimoi Moi, the director of Kangoy Farm that works with Agrico East Africa Company to multiply seeds for the exotic potato varieties, said there was high local demand for high-quality potatoes.
He cited several examples of food chains and and potato processors who needed certain exotic potato varieties.
He said the company in collaboration with his produces certified potato seeds that are supplied to farmers.
He discouraged farmers from re-using potatoes harvested from their farms because they could easily spread disease.
“Producing seeds is not the same as the normal potato growing. There are stages of treatment and monitoring that an ordinary potato on the farm is not taken through to ensure they are disease-free and best quality,” he said.
He said a tuber of Markies or Destiny varieties would produce 18 to 25 potatoes compared to the local with minimal yields.
Jackson Saone from Narok said he had been about to give up potato farming due to low production.
“Sometimes the crop matures when there is a glut and we are compelled to feed it to animals but with the linkages to buyers, one can confidently grow potatoes,” he said.
(Edited by V. Graham)