Coffee firm bets on nuts, melons

Kyanzavi Coffee Farmers Company in Machakos County plans to venture into macadamia and watermelon farming.

Chairman Francis Kalinzoya said the company has already contracted a farming agency that will collaborate with its workers to ensure the new project succeeds.

"We have enough fertile land to venture into the new farming initiative that is expected to boost the company's earnings," he said.

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Kalinzoya added that the company has several dams that will provide adequate water for the irrigation of the crops.

He said the company that sits on 800 acres is owned by more than 1,800 shareholders and has property in Nairobi, including Agriculture House whose proceeds had been partially utilised to boost coffee farming. However, this is expected to be a thing of the past once the proceeds from the new crops roll in.

Kalinzoya said the company has seen coffee yields dip due to poor weather, among other factors.  

Addressing journalists while inspecting the damage and loss incurred at the farm due to vandalism of water pipes and damage to coffee trees by livestock that stray into the farm, the chairman expressed optimism that under the new managing agency contracted last year, these challenges would be addressed.

"We have taken this new measure of additional farming of macadamia and watermelon to create more job opportunities and increase earnings for the company," he said.

Kalinzoya further called on the county and national governments to supply the company with subsidised farm inputs to overcome the challenges brought on by Covid-19.

Wycliffe Murwai, a manager at Kahawa Bora Managing Agency, who accompanied Kalinzoya and agricultural experts to the farm, said his firm was committed to ensuring optimum production of coffee, macadamia and watermelon.

If there are fruits that are popular in Nairobi and the larger Mt. Kenya region, then watermelon makes the top of that list.

In the Mwea region of Kirinyaga, largely youthful farmers have taken advantage of the popularity to grow the crop, which looks more like a pumpkin to meet the demand.

Among them is Joseph Njenga from Kiumbu village in Mwea, an area not well endowed with rainfall, but uses irrigation water to make annual earnings of about Sh600,000.

“With Sh70,000 which I spend on farm preparation, water pump fuel and buying seeds and pesticides, I’m able to recoup Sh300,000 in each of the two seasons per year,” says Njenga.

In addition to meeting the basics of the family, Njenga has also bought several pieces of land to expand his venture. He, however, says despite being lucrative, watermelon farming is not without its challenges.

“This area is generally water-scarce; I rely on pumped irrigation water from Kiumbu River which sometimes goes dry and I have to spend some money using trucks to get water from Thiba River which is far away.”

“Watermelon is prone to diseases and this forces me to spend heavily on the pesticide. They are very prone to cracking or bursting during and after harvest due to rough handling,” Njenga said.

Harvesting usually begins 75 to 100 days after planting depending on cultivation. He says that watermelons are harvested when they are almost ripe, when the fruit surface touching the soil is light yellow or when the vine closest to the fruit is starting to wilt.

The farmer notes that watermelons are fragile and should not be dropped during handling, stepped on or stacked too high. They should be handled with care.