Energy company ENI has informed Farmbiz Africa it will be recruiting over 100,000 farmers in Kenya to grow castor and croton seeds from September 2024.
The company recruited 25,000 small-scale farmers in 2023 increasing its number of contracted farmers to 90,000 in 11 counties. Through a $210 million investment from the Italian government and the World Bank, the company will enlist 200,000 small-scale Kenyan farmers in the next five years and build new biofuel processing plants to raise its oilseed production from 44,000 to 500,000 tons annually.
In an interview today with Farmbiz Africa, a company spokesperson said that farmer recruitment is currently closed but urged any growers looking to be contracted to the Italian-based company to reach the company on 0709993200 from early September.
Farmers growing the drought-tolerant castor bean which thrives in warmer regions of the country report earning up to Sh80,000 in three months from an acre of the crop.
According to Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi, the company will work to provide farmers with inputs, mechanisation, training, logistics, and certification helping them produce oilseeds in degraded lands not suited to food production or grow castor in rotation with other drought-tolerant food crops to help enhance the fertility of their soils.
The company currently has farmers in Makueni, Kitui, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Nakuru, Baringo, Embu, Meru, Machakos, Lamu, and Malindi supplying its agri-hub processing facilities in Makueni and Mombasa.
The vegetable oil pressed at these agri-hubs is processed and shipped to the company’s bio-refinery in Gela, Italy, where it is transformed into biofuels which are in hot demand for use in decarbonisation. This involves mixing biofuels with traditional fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gases emitted during air, road, and sea transport. The first cargo of vegetable oil for bio-refining produced by Eni in Kenya left the port of Mombasa at the beginning of October 2022.
The company is keen to keep the crop’s farmers limited to the country’s arid and semi-arid lands with low food production owing to concerns over food insecurity driven by farmers potentially shifting their lands to castor and croton production due to better prices.
Photo Courtesy
ENI Kenya: 0709993200
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