Farmers get valuable tips to squeeze money from bananas

Sabasaba Agri Business Cooperative Society Chairman Alex Kamau shares ideas with visiting farmers from Kisii. [PHOTO: NANJINIA NAMUSWA/STANDARD]

When it comes to growing bananas, farmers in Kisii take the crown. But when it comes to business acumen, Central is unrivalled.

That logic is what inspired an organisation — African Harvest — to organise an exchange programme for banana farmers from Kisii and Nyamira to visit Central to sharpen their entrepreneurial skills.

“Exchange visits provide farmers with a platform to share ideas,” said Africa Harvest Senior Programme Officer Wangari Kiragu.

Matthew Ikonya of Ministry of Agriculture in Manga said farmers in these areas have a fruitful yield but the profits are depressing because of several factors.

“They (farmers) lose a lot of money to middlemen. What goes in the pocket is nothing compared to their efforts. As a result, many are discouraged and opt for others crops. Bananas fetch good money, it is just an issue of marketing that they need to get right,” he said.

Group power

The exchange programme saw 2,415 small scale farmers from Kisii and Nyamira visiting Central.

First, the farmers visited Aberdare Technologies Ltd (ATL) in Murang’a County, a company that deals with tree and fruit seedlings.

Here, farmers were taken around and shown various high quality planting materials.

ATL Business Development Manager, Nicasio Ireri, taught the group importance of accessing clean planting materials.

“Avoid roadside and cheap nurseries because they are not good for commercial purposes. They cause huge losses,” he warned the visiting farmers.

The second stop was at Saba Saba Agri-Business Cooperative Society in Murang’a County which started in 2004 as a self help group and has since evolved into a cooperative society. Chairman Alex Kamau told farmers the cooperative sells an average of 25 tonnes of bananas every month for farmers.

“We sell our bananas in kilos which goes for Sh15,” said Kamau, adding that their member farmers are paid through banks.

Third stop was at Murindi Self Help Group in Kirinyaga County where Chairman Erastus Ndamberi said their members plant as individuals but sell in groups.

Quality produce

“We sell bananas at Sh15 per kilo. In a month, we sell an average of 20 tonnes of bananas,” he says.

After the visit and learning through observation, the farmers realised it is possible to fetch a good harvest and organise the marketing.

Elijah Omayo, a Bomachoge farmer said he’d learnt about sourcing of good quality planting material, planting, caring, harvesting and marketing. He was surprised at the huge amount of money farmers in Central make.

“Farmers in Central are well organised and know what they are worth and they go for it. In our area, we sell by just looking at the whole banana stalk, and smaller stalks goes for between Sh50 to Sh100, the middle ShSh150 to Sh250 and the biggest Sh300.

But here the biggest stalk is fetching over Sh800,” he says.

Selling in kilos

Another farmer, Esbon Siocha from Masava North says he has 300 banana stems but he’s yet to make a kill because of exploitation from brokers.

African Harvest, monitoring and evaluation officer Antony Aseta says most farmers do not know best variety to plant, making their banana vulnerable to pests and diseases.

“Some farmers do not pay much attention to quality. The low quality standard is due to the post harvest handling especially during transportation,” he said.

The farmers are now well armed with skills in leadership, technology, banana eating campaign, value addition, nutrition value, forming of collection centres, strength of chains, selling in kilos, increasing productivity, management of cooperatives and the use of agricultural officers.