MY 70 ACRES ONE-STOP SHOP FOR CROPS AND ANIMALS

Caroline Kerario in her farm in Kehancha, Kuria, Migori County. Photo/ Vivere NANDIEMO  

By VIVERE NANDIEMO

About 5km from Kehancha Town in Migori County sits Caroline Kerario’s expansive land.

The more than 70 acres is a beehive of activity with various agricultural ventures that are accommodated neatly vying to catch visitors’ eyes. On entering the compound, I was welcomed by the sight of healthy calves roaming freely as well as a breathtaking orchard and well-trimmed lawns.

I find the retired teacher in her vegetable garden this Sunday morning. Dressed in a t-shirt, white hat and pair of black trousers and gumboots, she takes me round the farm.

She has 20 acres of maize crop, 15 acres of sugarcane, 15 acres of bananas and about 40 acres of trees. She also grows fruits including pineapples, mangoes, oranges, paw paws and lemons. But that is not all; she keeps dairy cows, bees and poultry.

“I started farming way back in 2010,’’ says Caroline, who began by growing bananas and vegetables. “I ventured into other crops after realising that farming can pay. Since then I have never looked back.”

The wife of Kerario Mwita, a renowned advocate in Kisii, says they saved cash from their jobs to buy the expansive land and they kept ploughing back the profits into the agribusiness to reach today’s heights.

She harvests her bananas twice a week. One bunch of green bananas costs Sh250 and she can harvest up to 70, which earns Sh17,500. One would not expect her to get a ready market in Kisii town, which is the home of bananas. But Caroline has found a niche and has a loyal customer base which gives her an average of Sh70,000 a month from bananas.

Then against the grain, she grew sugarcane, which is being discarded by some because of poor pay. She, however, chose the chewing variety which is now on 15 acres.

“People here think sugarcane is meant for other places such as Mumias and parts of Migori. Sugarcane can grow in Kuria as well,” she says.
And she harvests it all-year round. “So many traders from as far as Kegonga, Ntimaru and Migori come here daily to buy sugarcane.’’

One stem of the produce goes for Sh20. The farmer sells up to 200 stems, getting about Sh6,000 in a day and an average of 120,000 a month.
“This crop is more profitable because I do not incur transport expenses since buyers come to the farm,” she says.

The farmer also reaps big from the maize crop, which occupies a bigger portion of her land. She grows the crop twice a year and harvests an average 300 90kg sacks of maize every season.

She does not sell her maize immediately after harvest. She says during such a time, a kilo goes for as low as Sh20.

“I harvest it, dry properly and store until prices improve. I also buy a lot of maize from farmers at cheap prices during the harvesting season,” she says.

Just recently, the farmer started growing soya beans, which she says has a low cost of production and is on high demand. “Soya beans are easier to grow and maintain. It has a high demand in various markets.”

An acre of soya produces an average of 12 bags in a season, with one bag going for Sh6,000.

Her orchard produces a variety of fruits. She sells pineapples in Kehancha and Migori. One piece fetches between Sh50 and 120 depending on the size.
In 2014, she decided to sell her indigenous cows and bought 17 dairy cows, mainly of Friesian and Ayrshire breeds.

“I bought the cows while they were still young and nurtured them until maturity.” She now milks seven of them, producing more than 100 litres of milk a day. She supplies the milk mainly to restaurants and schools in Migori Town. Her neighbours are also her customers. She sells a litre of fresh milk at Sh60.
To ensure that her cows have constant supply of sufficient feeds, she has planted napier grass and set aside part of the land for grazing.

Buy from Tanzania

She also feeds them on molasses, which she makes by crushing the cane using a manually operated machine to extract the juice which is heated intensely to produce a highly a concentrated molasses product.

In addition to the dairy meal she buys from the local market, she uses banana leaves and maize cobs to feed the animals. Dairy farming has in turn improved her crop yields as she gets a lot of manure from cows’ wastes.

“I use the maize cobs with cotton seed I buy from Tanzania to make a nutritious meal for the cows,” she adds. It is actually the ready availability of much of the fodder on her farm that motivated her to venture into dairy farming.

To keep diseases at bay, Caroline has a well-constructed and clean cowshed and a modern cattle dip, which she uses to wash her cows weekly.

Not one to rest easy, the farmer decided to also venture into poultry farming. She acquired some of her cross-breed layers and broilers from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation in Naivasha and others from a farmer in Bungoma.

“I have started selling eggs and the birds in Migori. I want to buy an additional 600 chicks,” she says.

She also has a number of beehives producing close to 100kg of honey after three months. “With good weather, we get 100 kg of honey which sell at Sh500 a kilo and consume the rest.”

So how does she handle all these ventures? “I do the marketing myself. I always go out to various markets to sell my products. I go as far as Homabay and Kisii.” For this she has bought two trucks and a pick-up.”

She currently has 20 employees and employs casual workers whenever there is a lot of work to be done.

“The main challenge is that mixed farming is labour intensive. I spend a lot on labour. During harvest period I have to engage as many as 50 workers.”
Last year, the dry spell in May killed her bananas, making her lose a lot.

Lack of expert assistance is another major challenge she faces. She says agricultural experts in the county have let her down adding that there are no reliable veterinary officers.

“Those employed at the county and sub-county levels are either never in their offices or not willing to help.”

She says she has turned to magazines such as Seeds of Gold and other agricultural publications for advice.

Caroline says mixed farming is more profitable and reliable as she does not depend on one crop. Through this type of farming, she says her land is productive all-year round.

“Farming can sometimes be a risky affair. Your crops can be affected by bad weather or pests. Mixed farming offers alternatives in case of such failure,’’ she says.

Booker Oloo, an agricultural extension officer in Kuria East sub-county, says that mixed farming is the way to go in the region, which has for a long time depended on tobacco as a source of income.

“It is time farmers in Kuria diversified their farming. The decline of tobacco should awaken their interest in other crops. Because majority of farmers have large tracks of land, mixed farming can enable maximum utilisation of the land and can cushion them from weather challenges,” said Oloo.
NATION/SEEDSOFGOLD