Edwin Kipkoech Rono is among farmers in the North Rift region who quit growing maize to grow alternative crops.
He quit maize farming in 2018 when the prices of the crop dropped yet the cost of production was still high.
By the time he was contemplating to quit maize farming, most farmers in his locality were turning to fruit farming.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Edwin hails from Sirikwa, a village in Nakuru County.
He quit maize farming after prices of the crop plummeted by 40 percent with the cost of production sky-rocketing.
He is among farmers who went into passion fruit farming after realizing that it was a more profitable venture than maize.
This is also because passion fruit farming requires a small piece of land and its inputs were relatively affordable.
Further, passion fruit farming are less demanding and they have quick and significant returns.
Rono planted fruit seedlings on three acres at his farm before expanding the acreage the crop covered.
“I have put 14 acres of my shamba under the passion fruit crop. After every three months it gives me more than thrice of what I used to get from 40-acre planted with maize in one year,” he said in an interview with People Daily.
The crop takes about nine to 10 months since planting time to mature, and harvesting time can last between three to four weeks.
Rono harvests between 1,200 and 1,500 kilograms per season which he sells for between Ksh 100 and Ksh 110 a kilo.
“…this yield fetches me between Ksh 120,000 and Ksh 165,000,” he said.
He mentioned that he experiences among other challenges unavailability of high-quality planting material and traditional propagation of seedlings.
“Farmers needed clean planting materials which are resistant to pests and diseases that continue to pose a serious threat to the country’s international markets, sometimes resulting in interceptions on Kenya’s agricultural produce,” Rono said.
