By MaryAnne Musilo

Elias Gitonga began growing dasheen arrowroots in Meru for his own farm, but demand has grown so much faster than his supply through his online marketing on tick tok and Facebook that he is now looking to buy the crop from other farmers too.

“Last year I got a 40-tonne order for arrowroots to export to Europe and couldn’t make the volumes for the order,” said.Elias, who farms in Imenti, Meru County.

If the contract comes through again, Elias now plans to buy arrowroots from neighbouring farmers to get the volumes, turning his farm into a market link and aggregator, rather than just a producer, thanks to his own direct social media marketing.

Elias grows plantain, avocado, passion fruit and arrowroots, but he had watched farmers around him struggle with brokers who dictated prices at harvest, often wiping out profits. So he decided to try reaching customers himself directly.

“After doing my research I leased a 2 acre shamba, where I now plant my arrowroot. One thing I knew is that I would use tik tok and Facebook for marketing. I wanted to get rid of the notion that farmers are not tech survey,” he said.

Elias now connects directly with buyers, cutting out the middlemen and responding quickly to orders. Between dasheen and eddoe arrowroots, he chose dasheen because it is preferred by large buyers due to its uniform tuber size and taste.

“I also wanted to practice the upland technology, where I didn’t have to plant in a water logged area and dasheen is perfect for this,” he said.

Elias uses sprinkler irrigation, but with care to avoid waterlogging and rot, which are  the biggest risk in arrowroot farming. Each dasheen sucker produces one tuber weighing from 05 to 2 kg.

“You can never go wrong with investing in arrowroot farming because you purchase the sucker once. I sell suckers at Sh10, as they  need replanting after harvesting,” he said.

On his own farm, he harvests 10 to  14 tonnes an acre per season and sells at Sh80 to Sh120 per kg. Planting once a year on two acres, he earns from Sh1.6m to Sh3.3m a year, depending on his yield and te price he gets.

Dasheen arrowroot suckers need to be planted in individual holes about 20–25cm deep and 15cm wide, with about half a kg of well-decomposed farm manure mixed into the soil at planting, he said.

“Each sucker should touch the bottom of the hole before being lightly covered with soil, to get good root contact. The crop does best when te field is kept free from weeds and given a little irrigation, especially in upland areas, to avoid waterlogging and rot.”.

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He plants about 20,000 suckers an acre, spaced at 50cm by 40cm. 

The arrowroots then need about eight months to mature, as early harvesting results in soggy or hard tubers that are difficult to cook.

The challenge is the root’s short shelf life, meaning it needs to be sold quickly after lifting. For this, some of his buyers come to his farm, but others prefer him sending the root by matatu or as as parcel.

“Also,,I feel the government has neglected tuber crops..I don’t see many programmes supporting tuber crop farmers or initiatives to promote tuber farming as compared to say, dairy farming, poultry, avocado and coffee,” he said.

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