Youth now champion for Silk farming

Elias Kimanthi and Morris Gitonga at a farm in GItijiwe in Imenti South, Meru County where they do silk farming. PHOTO: LISPER NYAKIO.

Traversing the southern part of Meru, Imenti South, in the scorching afternoon sun reveals that the area enjoys some cool breeze thanks to the numerous trees species of the mulberry and castor oil plant.

At Gitijiwe village, we meet Morris Gitonga, 29 in his half-acre farm where he has planted castor oil plants. Gitonga rears the Eri species of the silkworm in a wooden structure measuring 12 by 14 feet. He has stocked over 40,000 silkworms that he acquires from the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi.