By Mangoa Mosota
Gabriel Aol has stopped fishing for beer. It is not that he wants to drink himself silly but rather he has found a new venture that nurtures the brewer’s business and promises to move him up the economic ladder.
For three months now, Aol, 49, has taken up sorghum farming in his Mbita home in Homabay County. And Aol alongside other other farmers in the area have revived sorghum farming, which had been neglected for years due to lack of market.
“As a fisherman, I made about Sh10,000 every month or less depending on luck in other months. But last month, I sold my sorghum harvest for Sh130,000,” says Aol, who harvested 63 sacks of the grains. After all expenses were accounted for, Aol made a profit of Sh30,000.
He planted the grains on three-and-half acre piece of land at Lwanda Nyamasare village, a few metres from the lake.
Hooking fishermen
Aol’s wife, Emily Akayo, helps him at the farm. With these handsome returns, many more fishermen are going for the new venture.
“Although sorghum farming is quite demanding, the returns are better than spending cold nights in the lake searching for depleted fish,” he explains.
In just three months of venturing into the business, Aol has already bought a Sh40,000 generator and four bulls, at Sh18,000 each. He is divesting.
“I will use the bulls for ploughing my ten-acre land and also hiring them out to other farmers,” he says, “I intend to double the acreage under sorghum in order to better my proceeds and boost my investments.”
He will use the generator to wield various items such as metallic doors, and increase his income.
For nearly 20 years, no one wanted to hear anything to do with sorghum here because of the frustrations farmers went through due to lack of market in the past.
The new interest has been awakened by beer maker, East African Breweries, which is currently recruiting farmers in parts of western Kenya to grow the crop.
The company provides ready market for the farmers and buys the grains at Sh24 per kilo through its agents, or Sh30 at the depot.
Shortfall
East African Malting Limited’s general manager Patrick Nderitu says the firm needed 17,000 tonnes of sorghum last year but only managed to get 3,500 tonnes.
The shortfall was bought from Tanzania. Ismail Oloo is another farmer who is set to benefit from this arrangement.
He planted white sorghum (traditionally, people planted the red variety) on a ten-acre piece of land in April and three months later, he harvested 150 sacks.
Oloo, 60, says he had given up on sorghum farming. The last time he planted the crop in his farm at Lambwe village, Homabay County, was 20 years.
“The market for sorghum deteriorated in the 1990s. In 1992 I burnt more than two acres of the crop that was ready for harvesting, as there was no market for it,” says the retired teacher.
This made many local farmers abandon the crop for maize, but unfortunately the latter has not been doing well due to erratic rainfall.
However, growing sorghum is labour-intensive. For example, birds attack it when it is about to mature and the farmers must employ a number of casual labourers to scare the birds away for several days. This expense eats into the farmers’ profit.
Aol says he hired six people who guarded the crop for nearly two weeks, and paid them Sh300 each, per day.
Besides, thrashing and winnowing, the harvested crop must be dried for long hours hence more hands needed.
In Homabay County, some 1,500 farmers received seeds on credit by the European Cooperative for Rural Development. This expense is deducted from their pay for delivery to Breweries.
Growing sorghum for beer — started three years ago and has already netted more than 12,000 farmers in various parts of the country. For the farmers, things can only be better as they reap the benefits of their hard work.