They say a banana a day keeps the doctor away. This may well be true, but in Kirinyaga bananas ensure money in women's pockets.
Jacinta Mugo thought she had it all with her dairy cows and three acres of coffee coming from an area where coffee farming is an obvious income-generating venture for many families.
Things, however, changed when she went to the bank to receive her annual bonus but she got a rude shock — there was no money in her account.
“I resolved to quit coffee farming from then on — so much labour but at the end of the year you get little or no returns. I swore never to be enslaved to this crop again. I decided to uproot all the coffee plants but I didn't know how to approach my husband with this idea since the coffee belonged to him, while I did all the work,” she said.
The next morning at 5am, she hired a power saw to cut down the coffee plants while her husband was still asleep.
“When he woke up and found all the coffee plants down, he got so angry and almost sent me out of our matrimonial home. But since I am the one who had to endure waking up early in the morning to pick coffee and spend nights in the factory selling it, only to get nothing in my account at the end of the year, I was ready to face the consequences,” she said.
After cutting down the coffee trees, she planted maize and harvested about 40kg of maize in the first season. She however noted that maize is an unpredictable crop and she knew it will also disappoint her, so she took the advise from an agriculture expert to try banana farming.
“I started with 200 stools of the tissue-culture bananas and in the first harvest I got Sh4,000 and after another month, I got Sh8,000. By now I had started getting very excited about bananas and I planted more. When I got Sh20,000, I knew this is something that could sustain me and I haven't looked back since,” she said with satisfaction.
The highest pay Mugo had ever received from coffee farming was Sh71,000 in 1990 but this is nothing compared to the Sh700,000 she got three years ago from banana farming.
“Banana-growing is less labour-intensive and less involving especially after planting. You can use about two people to help harvest the bananas at only Sh1,500. When I was growing coffee, I hired about five people and I had to cook lunch for them lunch as pruning or harvesting of coffee takes a whole day. One has to incur the cost of transport to the factory and then wait for sometime to be paid. With bananas, you negotiate your price and the buyer comes to your home,” said Mugo, the chairperson of Ramine Banana Growers, which is part of the Banana Growers Association of Kenya.
Mugo gets about Sh40,000 to Sh60,000 a month from the sale of bananas.
“The returns from my banana farm are approximately US$ 685 (Sh60,000) a
month. I am sure some employed people in offices do not earn that much. After I was convinced that banana farming is reliable, I started recruiting neighbours so that as a group, we could negotiate for better prices and market our produce,” she said, adding that bananas fetch her 10 times more than coffee.
Ramine Banana Growers has 86 registered and 120 non-registered members, majority of whom are women. The farmers sell their produce to buyers from Nairobi, Nakuru, Nanyuki among other areas. Mugo said that they are now planning to export their bananas to the Middle East.
“Farmers must have a voice and am I grateful that through support from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), this has been made possible unlike in coffee where the price is determined by other parties and farmers have no say,” she said.
Through the Banana Growers Association of Kenya, banana farmers in Kirinyaga, Embu Meru and Murang'a counties received Sh24 million which was used to sensitize and mobilise farmers on banana growing.
“Some farmers received training in Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology on seed management and how to plant bananas and they are able to instill this knowledge to others. However, water is a big challenge to farmers and plans are underway to establish an irrigation scheme for banana growing in the area.
“Members of the BGAK approached a smallscale irrigation scheme to partner in this and they agreed to support us with Sh11 million while we get a loan of Sh11 million from a local institution. We have already raised Sh1.15 million for the initiative. The whole project will cost Sh23 million and will benefit more than 500,000 farmers,” said Mugo, a resident of Kamutuguti village, Kirinyaga County.
To commemorate the International Women's Day on March 8, Agra is this week celebrating the role of women in agriculture and in achieving a green revolution in Africa.
Outgoing Agra board chair Kofi Annan is quoted saying, “when women thrive, all of society benefits and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.”
Anne Mbaabu, from Agra market access programme, said this model for economic growth can be scaled up and has potential across regions and can be expanded to all banana-growing regions of Kenya, including Nyanza, Western, Rift Valley and Coast provinces.
“The model that has been used typifies a successful market driven approach to demand creation with systematic steps of creating a need, demand, creating and growing the value of the product and developing marketing channels and a distribution system for the product to reach the market,” said Mbaabu.
Canon Jean Munene, a banana farmer in Kirinyaga County, said everybody should go bananas about bananas because they are nutritious and not labour-intensive.
“When I used to rear cattle, I was a slave to the cattle since I had to ensure they are milked at least twice a day and no matter what happens I must dedicate time to milk the cows. Bananas on the other hand talk to you in a peaceful and entertaining language,” Munene said.