Johnstone Kiprono, 30, on his arrowroots farm in Chepcholol village in Nandi County. He is among few farmers in the region growing the crop and sweet potatoes.
| Stanley Kimuge | Nation Media GroupSeeds of Gold
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The fortune in arrowroots, sweet potatoes
Tea and maize are the crops of choice for many farmers in Nandi and the surrounding counties.
Alongside the crops, many others keep hybrid dairy cows thanks to the cool climate in which the animals thrive.
Johnston Kiprono, who is based in Chepcholol village in Emgwen in Nandi, has, however, chosen a different path.
The 30-year-old cultivates arrowroots and sweet potatoes, crops that have ready market since they are rarely grown in the area.
“I farm the Dasheen arrowroot variety alongside different types of sweet potatoes, including the reddish (Irene) and purple varieties,” Kiprono tells Seeds of Gold.
He was motivated to farm the crops due to their sweet returns. A 90kg sack of arrowroots goes for between Sh3,500 and Sh4,000 at farm-gate while a 50kg pack of sweet potatoes from Sh400 to Sh1,000. On the other hand, arrowroots and sweet potatoes seedlings go for Sh10.
Huge demand
“The first time I harvested sweet potatoes, I earned Sh20,000 from quarter an acre. This opened my eyes,” says the young farmer.
He has since leased two acres at Sh15,000 each a year to grow arrowroots, with the swampy portion hosting 8,000 plants. Sweet potatoes sit on an acre
To grow sweet potatoes, he first tills the land then makes ridges that are 10-inch-high spaced three-feet apart. He adds plenty of mature on the ridges before planting the vines.
Arrowroots, on the other hand, thrive in an area where there is enough moisture in the soil for development. He ploughs the land until the soil has a fine tilth then propagates either suckers or rhizomes that have two or more nodes each. The crops need a spacing of 0.75 by 0.30 meters apart.
The crops take six to seven months to mature. “There is huge demand for the produce. I sell most of it to traders in Kapsabet town,” says Kiprono, who harvests two tonnes of sweet potatoes per acre while a tonne of arrowroots from a similar space.
High cost of labour
The business has enabled him educate his younger sibling who is in college, provide for their family and save for his university education. Kiprono, who employ an average of four workers on need basis, deferred his studies at Technical University in 2014 due to lack of school fees.
Some of the challenges he has to contend with are high cost of labour, middlemen and pests and diseases.
“I want to advise young farmers that there are good returns in this form of agribusiness but it needs patience and determination,” says Kiprono, noting his goal is to farm the two crops on 30 acres each and process his produce.
Nandi Agriculture executive Kiplimo Lagat says arrowroots and sweet potatoes are high value crops that fetch good prices in the market because of their high nutrition value.
Dr Lagat notes that to attract young people into agribusiness, they must be supported to access finances and land.
“Access to land remains one of the biggest challenges to young people who want to venture into agribusiness. Parents who have unused land should allow their children to farm on it to train them how to make money. This is one way of showing them that you can make a living from farming.”
