Farmers smell the coffee and ditch crop for macadamia

Peter Ngige, a macadamia farmer, tends to his crop at Gikondi village, Mukurwe-ini, in Nyeri last week. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

Even as the Government attempts to turn around the fortunes of coffee farmers in central Kenya, the number of those replacing the bushes with macadamia trees is one the rise.

Spurred on by the seemingly insatiable demands of a thriving nut export market, the farmers are benefiting from prompt payments and lucrative returns uncommon in the coffee sector.

In Nyeri, for example, Gikondi Ward residents have long relied on proceeds from coffee and milk to support their families. But this is quickly changing.

While dairy farming is still a profitable business, farmers such as Peter Ngige told The Standard that they were clearing their coffee farms to pave way for macadamia trees.

Like most young farmers who have inherited land from their parents, Ngige regards coffee farming as a thankless endeavour. Eight years ago, his parents gave him his inheritance of three acres of land on which stood 300 coffee trees.

This was the cash crop whose meagre returns his parents had depended on to feed, educate and clothe Ngige and his siblings. But the thought of continuing with the family business had zero appeal for Ngige because of the low returns.

“It was a welcome surprise to have the land but I was not willing to continue farming coffee because I had witnessed first-hand how hard it is to make a living,” he said.

He recalled the last time he delivered coffee to the local factory, he was paid Sh3 per kilogramme and this was after months of waiting.

“You spend money on chemicals, pruning and harvesting but when it is time to sell the crop, I only earned Sh3 per kg. That is cheaper than a five-gram packet of instant coffee that is selling at Sh10.”

Murang’a 20 variety

Determined to go a different route, Ngige bought 60 macadamia tree seedlings of the Murang’a 20 variety from a nut-processing company.

“I planted and tended to the trees, ensuring I put adequate manure and water to allow them to thrive,” he said.

Three years after he planted the trees, he sold his first crop of nuts. Back in 2013, one kilo of macadamia was selling for Sh60.

“Being my first season, it was not a bumper harvest as I only sold 400 kilos of macadamia for Sh24,000,” he said.

But he continued in the venture and with demand for macadamia growing in the country, he is now smiling all the way to the bank as one kilo the macadamia sells for Sh200.

“Each tree now produces at least 30 kilos per harvest. This means out of my 60 trees, I can harvest 1,800 kilos and pocket Sh360,000 each time,” Ngige said, describing the returns as a small fortune compared to what he would have earned had he still been farming coffee.

The handsome returns have allowed him to build a three-bedroom bungalow and educate his children in private schools.

“I intend to gradually increase the number of trees from 100 to 30. The demand for seedlings is so high that sometimes when you plant them, they are stolen from the farm at night and sold in the local markets,” Ngige said.

The demand for the nuts is so high that middle men sometimes haggle for the crop at the gate to his homestead.

“I have had people come here and openly bid for my harvest. I pick the highest bidder, and get my pay instantly. This is not the case with coffee; I have to wait for months to receive pay and I have no say in what I get paid as the deductions are done at the factory,” he observed. 

A survey across the region conducted by The Standard revealed that more farmers are being swayed by the prompt and better pay from macadamia nuts compared to coffee, which, apart from low returns, is labour-intensive and requires a lot of care.

Farmers are selling macadamia nuts for at least Sh100 a kilo and while a handful of coffee factories have paid as high as Sh90 a kilo, most cannot match the nut prices.

Nyeri Senator Ephraim Maina has been leading a campaign to persuade farmers not to uproot coffee bushes, arguing that interventions put by the government will bear fruits with time.

“It is understandable, but regrettable that farmers have resorted to uprooting their coffee bushes. We want to assure them that all is not lost and ask them to be a little bit patient as some quick fixes are made to address their woes,” he said.

Debt waiver

The efforts to support the sector have included the formation of a taskforce to look into the plight of farmers with a view to improving their earnings. One of the recommendations is a Sh478 million debt waiver for coffee farmers and their cooperatives.

The setting up of a Sh1.7 billion Stabex fund and upgrading the Nairobi Coffee Exchange are some of the other ways President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government is trying to put more money into farmers’ pockets.

But it will take a lot more to convince jaded farmers that this time around, things will be different.

In Kirinyaga, Jane Mabuti from Mugucu village said she cut her coffee trees and planted macadamia trees because the profits were hard to resist.

And Charles Maina from Gatanga village in Murang’a said he uprooted his 6,000 coffee bushes after earnings fell to Sh15 a kilo ten years ago. He also opted to plant macadamia trees

Maina said that back then, nut prices were still attractive because he sold one kilo of nuts at between Sh10 and Sh25, which was better than coffee that paid less than Sh20.

“Presently, macadamia farming has attracted hundreds of farmers because a kilo is selling between Sh160 and Sh180 following the presence of many processors in the market,” Maina said.

But Nyeri Agriculture CEC Henry Kinyua cautioned that those giving up coffee farming were doing when the sector was headed for better times.

“We are committed as a government to fix the payment problem by addressing immediate challenges that farmers face while doing this business,” Kinyua said.

[Additional reporting by Boniface Gikandi and Munene Kamau]