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Boko Eats

Startup creates new markets for farmers suffering 40% waste from unsold bananas

An 80-tonne processing capacity factory is creating new markets for 2,250 smallholder contracted farmers in Kisii County rescuing them from a lack of markets. Kisii County is synonymous with banana production. The county has 6,350 hectares under banana production producing 359,600 tonnes of the fruit annually. According to the county’s former governor James Ongwae, up

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Western farmers trapped in sugar, sacrificing 1/2 to 2/3rds of rich-land income

Sugarcane farmers are staying trapped in sugar as their incomes slump, using often rich agricultural land for the cane, out of generational loyalty, practical lock-ins to millers’ contracts, loans, and inputs, and the challenges of finding their own markets for other crops. The result, as many wait months for slow payments, is a trap that

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CHIAM

Global universities launch 3-for-1 all-year crops in Kenya, complete with crop buyers

A university in Nyeri has joined a global consortium of agricultural centres to develop a farming package that uses three crops to help each other, slashing input costs, and tripling outputs in 12 months of constant sales. The package is now being launched to Kenyan farmers complete with markets for the chia seeds, oyster mushrooms,

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Thorn melon

Kirinyaga farmer turns low-grade eighth acre into Sh190,000 thorned melon money spinner

A Kirinyaga farmer is earning Sh190,000 from his eighth-acre plot every four months after pivoting from growing low-earning bananas and sugarcane to thorned melons. Stanley Thuranira has set aside an eighth of his four-acre piece of land in Kutus to grow the African thorned melon. Towards the end of August, September, October, and early November

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silkworm

Silkworm feeding on drought weed opens year-round earnings for semi-arid farmers from world’s hottest textile 

The introduction of silkworms feeding on drought-tolerant castor plants has opened year-round earnings for farmers in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas from the world’s most in-demand textile. Castor plant leaves provide the perfect food for Samia ricini or Philosamia ricini silkworms which make eri silk. According to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) information

Silkworm feeding on drought weed opens year-round earnings for semi-arid farmers from world’s hottest textile  Read More »

Stevia

World’s top stevia buyer braves it back to Kenya, after crash with novel crop

Kenyan farmers could soon be producing stevia– a high-earning herb with the fastest growing market in the world– for export as the leading global stevia producer is rumoured to be returning to Kenya. FarmBizAfrica reveals the tough journey that collapsed three partners’ first foray into the Kenyan market. The global stevia market has grown by

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