Young farmer ventures to grow strawberry

Some 16 kilometres away from Eldoret town, in Uasin Gishu County, a farmer is as busy as a bee tending to his strawberry plants.

Isaac Chumba has been doing strawberry farming for more than five years and he might not quit the agribusiness any time soon.

The farmer not only grows strawberries, but he also has other crops such as Sukuma Wiki, maize and beans in different portions of the farm. The other part, about some three acres, hosts the sweet strawberry plants.

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“I plant them at different times to ensure I have the produce all-the-year-round,” says Chumba.

He practices what he calls ‘shift cultivation’ which involves letting the farm to fallow for six months before planting once again. This is different from crop rotation where one plants a separate crop from a different family to break the disease cycle. Shift cultivation, according to him, helps to improve soil fertility and break the disease cycle.

“I learnt this technology through online research and tried it on my farm and it worked,” says the farmer who carries out strawberry farming in Kaptagat, Anabkoi, Uasin Gishu County.

The farmer grows the Chandler strawberry variety, which he says gives him bigger and sweeter fruits that have a longer shelf life.

Shift cultivation, according to him, helps to improve soil fertility and break the disease cycle.

There are two ways of growing strawberry depending on the variety, which is through seeds or through transplanting runners or splits.

The farmer plants using seeds. Chumba mainly uses organic manure since it’s readily available.