Covid-19 devastated his businesses, but it opened his eyes to a new opportunity

When David Mwangi’s real estate and banana farming enterprises started slumping from the impact of Covid-19, he had to act quickly, especially as he had a Sh500,000 loan to repay that was in its second month in default.

His rental houses in Ngurubani and Red Soil Estates that used to bring in Sh100,000 a month were no longer the cash cow they used to be, because the incomes of his tenants had been disrupted by the pandemic.

But while the scourge put him in a difficult position, it became a blessing later in 2020 when it led him to discover a venture that could bring in the money he needed to keep going.

“I knew that the tenants’ hardships were genuine and I made a personal resolve not to be hard on them. But I had to find some income to make my ends meet. I hit on farming traditional vegetables,” he said.

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His market trick was that, amid the pandemic, consumers were beginning to favour immunity-boosting food that medics and nutritionists were suggesting as ideal to ward off Covid-19.

“My math was to target the immediate market in my neighbourhood. I visited Kagio, Makutano and Murang’a markets to familiarise myself with the best vegetable to farm and that is how I settled on pumpkin leaves.”

In three months, he said, he hit the market with the first harvest, making Sh15,000 a week and eventually doubling that figure.

Weekly goal

His goal is to go to the market every week with a minimum of 300kg of the harvest, a target he can reach because he has four crop cycles that are a month apart, with a full cycle of one crop being three months.

“This ensures that upon full exploitation of one cycle, I just move into another, and so I have an uninterrupted market presence. This serves to keep my customers guaranteed that they can rely on me to plan their supply schedules, and that confidence keeps my income steady,” he said.

In rainy seasons, the price per kilo of the harvests drops to a minimum of Sh50 and in dry seasons the price doubles.

“When many are in pumpkin farming for its fruit harvests, I do not let my crop flower to maturity, because my interest is in the leaves that sell like hot cake as vegetables,” he said.

The pumpkin leaves are cooked as a vegetable and served with foods such as ugali. They are also used in mashed meals such as mukimo or irio.

On the two acres that he has dedicated to the crop in Kimbimbi village, Kirinyaga County, Mr Mwangi says the production costs for pumpkin leaves are 20 percent of returns, compared with between 30 and 40 percent for pumpkin fruits.

“If I were to go the whole cycle of pumpkin farming and tender the crop to fruit production, I would find myself incurring the costs of protecting them from a myriad of diseases as well as apply more fertilisers,” he said.

“Concentrating on the crop’s leaves minimises those overheads and the hassle of the market is minimised because the leaves draw customers to the farm as opposed to the pumpkins that have to be stored as one solicits a market for them.”

By specialising in pumpkin leaves, he said, he cuts the market entry point by 80 percent “since by the close of the third week the leaves are mature for harvest as opposed to the four months it takes to harvest mature fruits of the crop”.

Once the leaves are harvested, with enough watering and application of the necessary fertilisers, more and broader leaves sprout as the plant grows, he said.

“In the past nine months that I have been in this business, I have been able to make enough to continue servicing my bank loan and spare enough to maintain my lifestyle. In fact, I thank Covid-19 for forcing me to discover this money-minter enterprise,” he said.

Important crop

Pumpkins can be grown in lowlands up to altitudes of about 2,500 metres above sea level. They are warm-season crops adapted to temperatures of 18-27 degrees Celsius.

They prefer well-drained fertile soil with a neutral pH and are hardy, withstanding long spells of dry weather. But for maximum productivity, they need water.

Mr Mwangi says the varieties that he prefers are the white giant developed in South Africa, and the Israel giant because “their leaves are broad and if well tendered, they post more weight on the scale and hence more earn”.

Elizabeth Mwaura, a nutritionist at Murang’a Level Five Hospital, said pumpkins make a strong case for themselves in the market because they are rich in vitamins and minerals and support a medicinal diet.

“Their selling points are the pulp, seeds and the leaves, where the strengths are a low-calorie count ideal to pacify cardiac arrest. They are also approved to have antioxidants such as vitamins C, A, and E that are ideal in keeping at bay skin and sight-related disorders,” she said.

Mr Mwangi said he digs holes that are two by three metres and fills them with compost mature. He also applies DAP fertilizer.

“In each hole I place two to three seeds and I bury them one to two inches deep, and an acre on average carries between 1,800 and 2,000 seeds,” he said.

“In dry weather, irrigation twice a week is ideal since it helps the plants absorb nutrients and develop faster with the prerequisite market weight.”

The most common diseases, he said, are bacterial wilt, downy and powdery mildew. Aphids, white flies, the African melon ladybird and the fruit fly are the most troublesome pests.

“But all of them are dealt with by readily available and affordable agrochemicals. But one needs to be wary of the globally banned chemicals that, if used, may lock out farmers from specific markets, especially the export market, which is very sensitive to chemical use,” he said.

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