Jason Mwangi who grows various types of fruits at his farm in Mukithi village, near Baricho town, Kirinyaga County.

KIRINYAGA, KENYA: His expertise in fruit farming and sound knowledge in various fruits’ nutritional values has earned him the tag “Mwangi wa strawberries”, which has pushed up his sales.

At Kagio market where he makes the bulk of his sales, some customers refer to him as “Muthuri wa matunda funny funny” (a dealer in rare fruits) due to his ability to supply quality and healthy fruits, including rare ones throughout the year.

These two tags make it easy to forget his real name – Jason Mwangi – but epitomise his work and enable him to reap to the maximum from his fruits.

Mwangi grows different types of fruits and herbs, including the rare ones that locals consider wild or exotic at his farm in Mukithi village, a few kilometres from Baricho town in Kirinyaga County.

While his neighbours plant mainly maize and beans, Mwangi’s farm stands out where fruit trees intermingle beautifully with herbs, vegetables and nuts.

The different types of fruits in his orchard include pomegranate, tree tomatoes, mangoes, berries (straw berry, cape goose berries, mulberry, rasp berry and Indian goose berries), avocados, banana, pawpaw, guavas, cherry tomatoes, passion (sweet yellow and red), oranges.

He also grows herbs such as mint, rosemary, sage, basil, lemon grass in addition to sugarcane and yams.

Mwangi is involved in the fruit-business full-time and is always either tending them or visiting different markets to sell his produce.

While his half-acre farm stands on a steep slope that people in the past considered a barren land, Mwangi has transformed it into a productive ground.

“I gradually transformed the former waste land into what it is today. I began by clearing the trees and bushes, then dug benches to check soil erosion,” he says.

He was lucky that the land is served by two water sources; a stream at the far end of the slope and a water canal on the upper end of his farm near his house.

Mwangi maximises on space by having the various trees and fruits share the same spot. He has 30 avocado trees and a similar number of mango and macadamia trees.

“I cut the lower branches, leaving the top ones to bear fruits. This allows the penetration of sun to the ground. Between one fruit tree to the other I plant medium height fruits such as tree tomatoes. Finally I have planted low height crops such herbs, pepper and vine fruits near the ground,” explains the former designer who at one time worked in Sudan.

While many farmers complain of exploitation by brokers, Mwangi sells directly to consumers at the prevailing market price.

He has a shed at Kagio market from where he sells his farm produce. He also travels and sells his fruits in faraway markets such as Mwea and Nairobi.

Mwangi has no trouble in selling the rare fruits as he has loyal customers who are driven by the quality of his produce.

“I have the phone number of my customers and alert them when taking the produce to the market. I cannot even meet the demand,” he says.

Many of his rare fruits are wild in nature and consequently organic thus he does not spray chemicals on them. Apart from lowering his cost of production, the organic fruits earn more in the market.

“I pick one kind of fruit at a time so that they ripen at different times, thus shielding me from wide price fluctuations during gluts,” he says.

After working for a few years as a designer in South Sudan, Mwangi returned to Kenya in 2011 and worked as a fruits broker while at the same time planting more fruit trees in his farm.