By Felix Ochieng Akech 

Migori County farmer Caleb Odhiambo has increased his income to over Sh230,000 a month by replacing a ¼ acre of tomatoes with courgettes planted sequentially with the best seeds.

Several years of improvements have now given him harvests every two days for most months of the year.

“One plant gives me around 1.8 to 2.2 kilos a week, and I harvest about three times a week, so my quarter acre gives me 100 to 120 kilos every time i harvest,” he said.

“Instead of planting all 1,000 plants at once, I also now plant 300 today, 300 after 10 days, and the rest after another 10 days. This tripled my sales money because I have a continuous supply instead of flooding the market all at once,” he said.

“My biggest early mistake was ignoring pollination. I assumed bees would appear naturally. After seeing 30 percent crooked fruits, I planted sunflowers on the borders and started renting three beehives. Since then, poor fruit formation dropped from 30 percent to under 8 percent,” he said.

He also got more by switching seeds. “I started with the traditional Black Beauty open-pollinated squash, but the sizes were all over the place, some 12 cm, some 25 cm, and buyers paid me 30 percent less for all the different sizes. Last year, I changed to Ambassador F1. That one change alone boosted my income. Ambassador fruits are uniform 16cm to 20 cm, very straight, and weigh 200–250 grams. Because they are so uniform, hotels pay me Sh140 per kilo instead of Sh90. My rejection rate also dropped from 18 percent to 4 percent after switching,” he said.

He reduced losses further through raised beds. “My first season I planted flat on the ground. When rains came, I lost 162 plants to root rot. So I adopted raised beds (75 cm wide) with 1 m by 60 cm spacing. Raised beds have allowed the water to drain in minutes. That increased my plant survival from 84 percent to 97 percent, while the better spacing reduced powdery mildew by almost 40 percent because the leaves don’t touch each other,” he said.

“In my first season, I used a sprinkler. That created too much humidity and increased powdery mildew. I changed to drip irrigation, with 30 cm emitter spacing. I also mulched the whole field. This reduced my water use by 45 percent and kept fruits clean. I irrigate 30–40 minutes daily, but reduce water by 25 percent during hot months to prevent fruit splitting,” he said.

For his soils, “I used to rely only on NPK and CAN, but my fruits were bending and soft. In 2023, I introduced potassium sulfate at flowering about 25 grams per plant. That  made my fruits firmer and more uniform. I also started foliar feeding every 10 days with Kelpak. Before this, my yields were around 1.4 kilos per plant per week. After the change, I now average 1.9–2.1 kilos per plant per week,” he said.

“Whiteflies almost finished my crop in 2022. I used to spray only one chemical, Confidor, until it stopped working. The change came when an agronomist taught me rotation of active ingredients. Now I follow a three-week rotation: Week 1 is Imidacloprid; Week 2 is Abamectin; Week 3 is Flonicamid. I also added yellow sticky traps, 40 traps per quarter acre. Since I introduced the rotation plus traps, my whitefly levels dropped by 70 percent, and I’ve cut pesticide use by one-third,” he said.

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He also  altered harvesting and handling. “I used to harvest with a knife and throw fruits into sacks. Hotels rejected almost 15 percent because of bruising. I changed to harvesting at 16 to 20 cm, using secateurs, and packing only in ventilated crates and storing at 13 to 15 °C. My rejection rate is now below 5 percent, and I get premium hotel prices,” he said.

The changes came after repeated losses on tomatoes. “I lost two whole seasons of tomatoes to bacterial wilt. They were giving me losses of up to Sh60,000 per season,” he said.

He advised new farmers: “Start small and be present on the farm. Squash grows very fast, one day of ignoring pests, especially whiteflies, can destroy two weeks of progress. And don’t use saved seed. Buy hybrids. Also, harvest every two days,  that’s where the money is.”

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