Sorghum farmers are earning up to 15 shillings more a kilo after switching from growing the grain for East African Breweries Limited to being contracted farmers for seed producers.
On her 10-acre farm in Nkubu, Meru County, Jacinta Nkirote grows various varieties of sorghum and cowpeas for the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). “While EABL pays its farmers between Sh45 and 50 a kilo, I earn Sh60 for every kilo that the research body picks from my farm,” she said.
Jacinta switched to growing for the government’s chief crop research organisation three years ago after being frustrated with the beer maker’s poor pay. Being a contracted government seed grower also has the benefit of giving her a rotation crop as she alternates between cowpeas from the pea family and sorghum, a grass family crop.
“KALRO officers were scouting for farmers to grow seeds for them and I was recommended to them by a government extension officer who worked on my farm and had seen that I had mastered growing quality sorghum,” she said.
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She informs farmers looking to qualify as contracted seed growers that they do not need large tracts of land as they can qualify with as little as two acres. The most important consideration is to not have a similar crop to one that you are growing on the farms next to yours.
This avoids undesirable cross-pollination which changes the original characteristics that farmers expect from a KARI Mtama-1 sorghum variety or a Katumani 80 cowpea.
Intercropping is also not allowed in contracted seed farming as it also taints the integrity of the seeds.
KALRO officers visit her farm when the crop is growing to check that it is ‘clean’ and also assess the quality of the seed once it is harvested.
From one acre of her sorghum, she harvests 20-15 90-kilogram bags, and from her whole farm, she usually gets 45 bags of cowpeas.
It is not all roses for seed growers though. Due to the heavy rains this season Jacinta harvested just 12 bags of cowpeas which she says is a blessing in itself as she didn’t expect to get any grains from her farm. Cowpeas are drought tolerant and require just 300-700 mm of rain. Excessive rains especially during flowering causes flower abortion which significantly reduces their yields. They also require dry weather during harvest.
Another challenge she faces is the farm’s operational expenses, especially in pesticides.
For her ten acres, she spends Sh70,000 on pesticides which she sprays every one to two weeks, fertiliser, and booster foliar.
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The two major pests for sorghum farmers are the fall armyworm which has been a major pain for Kenyan maize farmers and the Lesser Grain Borer which bores into the grains right before they dry and feeds from the inside leaving a white residue on the stored grains. It is also a primary pest that leaves the seeds exposed to attack by other pests
Farm labourers are the other major cost with Jacinta paying up to 30 people Sh400 and lunch to plough and plant her farm for a week, a similar number for three days during harvesting, and another 10 labourers for the about five crop spraying cycles.
Jacinta Nkirote on Facebook
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