Horticultural News January - February issue

Good neigbours
traditional sugarcane and maize farming.
the fruits since the juice fetches
more money,” she said.
Mrs Ogolla says a farmer can
make five litres of juice from five
kilos of the fruits which he can
sale for over Ksh 500 compared to
the fruits which could fetch him
Ksh 150. She pointed out that the
demand for passion fruit is much
more than what the farmers are to
producing.
“We have never had even a
single farmer lack market for his
passion fruits because of the high
demand,” she said. Mrs Simiyu
said 50 community based groups
have ventured into passion fruit
farming after the initiative rolled
out a campaign to popularize
passion fruit farming and are
about to harvest their first fruits.
This follows the successful
setting up of several
demonstration centers across
the county. The demonstration
centres are meant to address the
challenges facing the new farmers
which include lack of knowledge
and the reluctance amongst
farmers to try the new venture.
Mrs Simiyu says the seedlings
for the new farmers are enough.
“We have enough seedlings and
we encourage more farmers to
come out and venture into passion
fruit framing,” she said. KHCP has
been funding the setting up of
the nurseries and greenhouses to
benefit local farmers.“The cost of
setting up a nursery is too high at
over Ksh500, 000 and local farmers
cannot afford. That is why we have
partnered with Good neighbours
to bridge the gap,” said KHCP
Western region manager Mr
Geoffrey nyamota.
KHCP has so far spent Ksh
85million supporting more than
15,000 passion fruit farmers in
rift valley, Western and nyanza
provinces. Mr nyamota said KHCP
will continue to support small
holder farmers to improve their
income through horticulture
farming.
He said passion fruit is popular
because it matures within a short
period. He said purple and yellow
passion fruits are the two major
species cultivated for commercial
purposes in the country.
“yellow variety is the most
resistant to pests and diseases
while purple is the most popular.
That is why we graft our fruits to
improve the quality and resistance
to diseases,” he said.
Mr nyamota said overreliance
on maize and sugarcane had
led to many farmers being
impoverished due to lack of
markets and low pay. He said
smallholder farmers stand to
benefit the most since they can
make more money from small
parcels of land.
HCDa manager in charge of
Western region Mrs Carol Soita
said her organization is working
with Good neighbours, farmers,
and brokers who provide linkages
to the market and government
line ministries involved to
popularize passion fruits in
Western.
She said HCDa brings together
farmers in workshops organized
in conjunction with Good
neighbours to learn about new
varieties and get linked to markets.
She pointed out that HCDa
is keen to make passion fruit
a second major cash crop to
sugarcane for the people of
Western province.She argues
that for a sustainable passion
Mr Nathan Sava waters passion fruit seedlings at Lugari
horticulture nursery.
Mrs Monica Simiyu attends to her fruits in Kamukuywa
Bungoma.
fruit industry, there is need to
supply clean planting material,
and maintain the necessary crop
practices to protect the crop
against pests and diseases.
a passion fruit farmer Mr
nathan Sava said planting
200 passion fruits can fetch
one between Ksh21, 000 to
Ksh30,000 every week after
nine months. He said he makes
Ksh 780, 000 from his one acre
passion fruit farm each year. “I
have gradually been expanding
my land size under passion from
the initial one acre to over five
acres now because of the good
returns,” he said.
One of the nurseries set up by
Good neighbours is on his parcel
of land making it easy for him to
get seedlings. another farmer
Mr Gabriel Wekunda says his
switch to passion fruit farming is
partly due to the unstable prices
for maize and poor payment for
sugarcane.
“Sugarcane takes more than
two and half years before it
matures and the returns are
usually very low,” he said. He said
the main challenge he has to deal
with is pests and diseases that
infect his fruits.
Diseases like woodiness
and fusarium wilt are the main
challenges facing the farmers
like Mr.Wekunda. Farmers are
advised to plant grafted seedlings
to improve their resistance to
diseases. Passion fruit unlike
maize and sugarcane matures
within nine months, and can
be harvested four times a year,
depending on the availability of
rain or irrigation water.
Passion fruits fetch a good
market in Britain and the European
union, while the Middle East is
also emerging as an option.
also within the country, there
is a ready market for the crop, and
farmers have not been able to
meet the ever rising demand.
H O R T I C U LT U R A L N E W S I j a n u a r y - F E B r u a r y 2 0 1 2 47