Potato yield doubled with certified seeds in Nakuru

Potato farmers in Nakuru are getting bumper harvests from certified seeds and adoption of climate-smart solutions.

Kenyan potato farmers have been grappling with low production due to unavailability of certified quality seeds that yield better potatoes

Many farmers have been using seeds from past harvests and this has made the potato sector less productive and less profitable.

But times are changing as farmers in Nakuru county are taking up the use of certified seeds and adopting climate-smart technologies to increase production.

The benefits are due to efforts from the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (Craft) project. It has decentralised the seed system to farmers through SMEs and cooperatives and the seed multiplication business.

Purity Kimathi, a farmer and agronomist linked with Starlight Cooperative from Jogoo, Molo in Nakuru county, has leased land and is growing the shangi potato variety on five acres.

The 32 year-old who graduated in 2017 with a degree in horticulture from JKUAT said she has a passion for farming and has been growing potatoes as a side hustle.

Kimathi said she got into farming immediately she cleared university and started by growing maize, beans and watermelon in Meru until 2020. Then she got a job in Nakuru as an agronomist.

“My job involved dealing directly with the farmers and this opened my eyes and I got interested in potato farming. I started by leasing one acre but productivity was low, because I used seeds that farmers saved from a previous harvest," she said.

In the next season, Kimani reduce her acreage and planted potatoes on half an acre, but this time, she used certified seeds and climate-smart practices and technologies.

“I used eight bags of certified seeds that I bought at Sh3,500 per 50kg bag. My plan was to grow the potatoes in half an acre so that I could produce my seeds for the next season and plant in two acres,” she said.

She harvested 118 bags of 50kgs from the half acre and sold 80 bags as ware potatoes at Sh25 per kilo, earning about Sh100,000. This time, yield increased by more than 50 per cent.

She used the remaining 38 bags as seeds on two-acres.

Because of using seeds from a past harvest, production went down to 90 bags per acre and by then a bag was selling at Sh500 with a kilo going for Sh10.

"Currently I have planted five acres and I have used certified seeds I bought from Fresh Crop Limited in Nakuru,” Kimathi said.

She is expecting to double her harvest from the 90 bags she harvested from an acre in her previous harvest. She also plans to add another one acre to grow potato seeds.

Potato-growing counties include Bomet, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kiambu, Meru, Nakuru, Narok, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Taita Taveta, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and West Pokot.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, potatoes are the  second most important food crop in Kenya after maize. More than 800,000 smallholder farmers cultivate the crop on 158,000ha (390,426 acres) annually.

Oscar Nzoka, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Craft, Climate Smart Innovations Adviser, said the climate is changing and farmers are experiencing climate risks.

These risks include increased temperatures, extreme weather events such as floods and drought and emerging pests and diseases, among other problems.

“We use various forums to disseminate information and knowledge to farmers regarding climate change and a pool of technologies and practices.

"These supports them to address  climate change shocks and stresses and at the same time increase productivity. In the end, this translates to better income for the farmers,” he said.

At the same time, growing urban populations in Africa are driving up the demand for food.

This calls for an integrated approach, namely the adoption and scaling of inclusive climate smart solutions and practices for sustained inclusive agribusiness development, Nzoka said.

He said the Craft project was designed to address climate change-related challenges affecting the agriculture sector in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and increase the availability of climate-smart foods.

The project is being implemented by SNV as the lead partner in partnership with Wageningen University and Research (WUR), ILRI, Agriterra and Rabo. It is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign affairs.

“In Kenya, the project is working in various value chains including potato, common beans, sorghum and green gram and supporting farmers in capacity building, access to inputs and markets, linkage to service providers and adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in the wake of climate change,” Nzoka said.

Chris Gasperi, CEO and Founder, Fresh Crop Limited, an innovative seed multiplication company based in Nakuru County said the potato sub sector is laden with a myriad of challenges including lack of certified seed, lack of training in good agricultural practices for optimal potato production.

This is in addition to lack of access to modern technology and markets. FreshCrop is one of the business champions supported by CRAFT.

It is on this backdrop that Fresh Crop Limited in partnership with CRAFT held a farmer’s field day in Mau Narok, Nakuru County last week on Thursday.

The field day brought together stakeholders in the potato value sector that ranged from Agro-dealers, County representatives, KEPHIS, Farmer groups, Cooperatives, Farm mechanisation suppliers, Agro-financing service providers and over 2,000 farmers from key potato growing counties.

“The event was aimed at showcasing modern climate solutions in potato production that can assist farmers to build resilience to the changing climate and also increasing productivity, while also providing an opportunity for input and service providers in the sector to showcase their products and solutions to potato farmers,” Gasperi said.

(Edited by V. Graham)