Farmer builds business in Kenyan feral cherry tomato seedlings
By Antynet Ford
A Machakos farmer who began breeding Kenya’s feral cherry tomato as a crop has now expanded into seeds and seedlings for the hardy local fruit, on the scale of demand via social media.
Bernard Gitau started selling the feral cherry tomatoes, which originally arrived as weeds on this farm, in the last quarter through social media marketing and to friends around Joska and working at the Kenya National Museums. But buyers quickly began asking him for seeds, he said.
The tomato is generally hardier and more pest resistant as a natural weed and with much greater genetic diversity than commercial hybrid seeds.
“People are making orders for the seeds because they want to plant it at their homes for domestic use. We are improving and increasing our production of the seeds, even as this is our first batch (in the nursery bed). The overripe are the ones that I will continue to make seeds from. I will not stop the production of seeds after this first batch,” he said.
“To make the seeds, I dry the overripe tomato, then scrub it and continue drying to ensure 100 per cent germination when I am doing it for the nursery or selling to someone.”
It is social media buyers who are leading the seed and seedlings orders, meaning he has needed to produce more.
“On Thursday, I had five people asking if I can deliver seeds to them while two others were asking if I have some seedlings in the nursery ready for planting for them to buy. Their orders came in time because earlier in the week while I was making the harvest, I started the sun drying of the overripe ones and these are the ones you have seen on the sun still drying them to ensure they germinate well,” he said.
“By next week I will deliver to them because they will be fully dried. Something that I need to mention is, before I sell the seeds, I do a germination test here at the farm to be sure the buyer will be safe. As you have seen on the nursery, the germination is 99 per cent. So if someone asks if it will germinate, I can show them that, truly, it will germinate and there is no need to worry,” he said.
He planned to transplant over 300 seedlings in the week he spoke to FarmBizAfrica, and was also to sell over 700 that were already ready, at Sh4 per seedling.
He said this has reduced the cost of going to the agrovets to buy cherry tomato seeds, and delivers a feral seedling that is abundant in natural conditions and rarely needs pesticides. “All I need is to prune the stems and help the plant grow properly for it to fruit well,” he said.
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