Uproot my crop? Wake up and smell the Kenyan coffee!

While some farmers in Mt Kenya region uprooted their coffee bushes in the last few years citing poor returns, a farmer from Kathunguri area of Gichugu constituency Kirinyaga County is making a fortune from the same crop.

Simon Muchiri Nyaga, 50, went fully into coffee farming after he quit his job as a primary school teacher in 1999.

“I knew all coffee farmers were uprooting their crop. But me. No way. I have sufficient reasons to hang on to the crop,” he tells Smart Harvest.
But to stay afloat, he has had to embrace modern farming methods of tending to the crop to boost his yield and take some radical steps to manage his farm.
“Even though I was growing coffee, I was also working as a clerk and later and as a field liaison officer with Central Kenya Coffee Mills. But because of the many challenges facing this venture, I was forced to quit to give the farm my all,” he says. “I have also embraced modern farming methods.”

He planted 440 stems of SL variety and 120 Ruiru varieties in 2011 and in 2013 added 150 SL varieties, which he will start picking coffee from this season.
To him coffee farming is a profitable venture as he raked in at least Sh400,000 every year from the 560 stems he started with and he now expects the money to increase due to the extra stems.
From his one and half acre piece of land he also keeps dairy cows, pigs, sheep and poultry which provide sufficient manure to apply to his coffee stems.

Best practice

He also follows strict application of manure, spraying and pruning. This has enabled him maintain an average of 10kgs per stem and he expects to reach between 15 and 20kgs in coming seasons due to his best practice.
Muchiri mills his own coffee thus bypassing extra charges by factories and sells direct to millers who then advance him money that he uses to pay school fee for his daughters in university and another in secondary school.
He says during his employment as a field officer he happened to work with an agronomist who would visit his farm and offer valuable information that enabled him to improve on his farming.

Good management

“The secret in farming coffee profitably lies in good management. One should apply one wheelbarrow of manure to a stem. One should also constantly scout coffee for pests and spray immediately to keep off thrips and other destructive bugs.
He also emphasises on disease control through spraying to prevent Coffee Berry Disease and leaf rust, which he warns can spoil a farmer’s harvest.
“One must also add fertiliser during the dry season. From April I add nitrogen fertiliser such as CAN while towards the end of May I add compound fertiliser such as 22:16:12 or 23:23:0. I also spray from April, May, June and July. I also add folio feeds,” he adds.
In 2013/2014 season he sold a parchment of 1,300kgs (which is made from between four and five kgs of cherry beans) and pocketed Sh420,000.
However in the 2014/2015 season, production lowered due to unfavourable weather change and he managed 1,080kgs of parchment from which he has already received Sh220,000 and expects more that from the rest of the coffee as most of it has not yet been bought.
The coming season he expects to get about 2,000kgs of parchment which is about 9,000kgs of cherry beans because of the extra stems he has planted.
He mostly manages the farm together with his wife. But when there is a lot of work like during spraying and harvesting, he engages casual workers.
Muchiri’s message to farmers is that there is money in coffee if one takes as a serious agri-business undertaking.

To the doubting Thomases he says: “I was able to build a three-bedroom stone house using coffee proceeds in 2011. I have also bought a prime plot near Kerugoya town and I have started a dairy and pig farming project using coffee money.”