A mango farm in Makueni has delayed their trees from producing fruits during the main mango seasons, increasing their earnings per fruit by 500 per cent and ensuring they always have fruits for export throughout the year.
By removing the flowers on their mangoes and dry season irrigation Iviani Farm harvests and sells all of its fruits from September to November for Sh30 per fruit, six times more than the five shillings most farmers earn in peak season.
Forcing off-season fruiting dates back to 17th Century Rome when farmers used basic ‘greenhouses’ called orangeries to grow oranges and other citrus fruits out of season for wealthy elites. Studies done in Kenya have shown that this smart farming technique not only earns fruit farmers premium prices but it reduces postharvest losses from 50 per cent to less than eight per cent because farmers spread their production across seasons and avoid oversupplying local and export markets.
According to the farm’s co-founder Faith Mumo this is made possible by harvesting tonnes of rain water and water from a rock catchment tank at Kwa Kathoka village through gutters which channels the water into the farm’s dam which also doubles up as a source of fish pond water.
“The stored water irrigates a segment of our 20-acre farm with over 900 mango trees for off-season production,” she said.
Right before the March to May rainy season the trees are irrigated to promote the leaves to grow. If flowering starts, the flowers are removed to delay the mango tree’s fruiting.
After the rains the mangoes are denied any water for four to six weeks to make them stressed. This encourages the trees to shift from growing leaves to flowering.
From July to August they again start feeding the trees a little water which makes the tree start producing flowers which are this time not beaten off or plucked but are left to become fruits.
The fruits start to ripen from September through to early December when they are harvested when local and international market prices are the highest and avoid the peak harvests from January to March when prices go as low as two shillings a mango.
“By water stressing the mangoes they also learn to grow with up to half the amount of water. Local mango trees are more tolerant to limited water supply so I’d advise that you graft them with Keitt mangoes which are what people want,” Mumo advised.
