Passion fruit offers opportunity in Kenya
Its farm gate price stands at Sh70 per kilogramme during the peak seasons while those lucky farmers who produce the fruit at off peak seasons can comfortably earn Sh120 per kilogramme.
Perhaps this is what drove Fredrick Njogu Mwoya into being a passion fruit farmer as he continues to uproot his coffee stems to get more space for the profitable crop. Besides yellow passion fruit farming, Mwoya also engages in the production of the seedlings, selling a single sprout at Sh30. Last year, Mwoya earned Sh350,000 from his half acre piece of land.
He says this season he has planted more seedlings after uprooting a section of his coffee trees which he said are not giving him good returns as compared to the kind of labour and inputs applied.
Mwoya says he is able to comfortably sustain his family and educate his children without much financial struggles as it used to be when he solely relied on coffee for his survival.
Mwoya attributes his accomplishment to a farmer's field day he attended where he came across the magic fruit on display by a team from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. He was invited to sample the fruit and from its sugary taste, and the information he received from the staffers, he decided to try it immediately.
"The crop only requires a well prepared land, manure and spraying before and after the flowering to ward off some pests and parasites which can cause extensive damage if nothing is done to stop them. I am able to attend to my fruit farm single-handedly while my wife is engaged in other domestic work leading to maximum utilization of time," Mwoya says.
Source: allafrica.com
