By MaryAnne Musilo

Pauline Ndung’u from Ruiru, Kiambu, who previously lost her entire passion and paw paw harvests to floods, is ending rain-drenched 2025 with a successful arrowroot harvest after rebuilding her entire plot to be flood proof before the rains came, using imported soil, manure, and trenches.

The retired businesswoman first entered farming with passion fruits and pawpaws, investing Sh100,000. But the heavy rains that followed wiped out everything.

“I had invested Sh100,000 and planted 80 passion and 80 pawpaw seedlings. I also planted bananas. They did well and fruited but just as I was ‘counting my chicks before hatching,’ it rained and flooded. I harvested nothing. It was heartbreaking,” said Pauline.

Her plot was on black cotton soil that has an extreme reaction to rain, swelling up, and draining poorly. This can see a small amount of rain drown and waterlog crops. “But after my friend visited my farm, she advised that I add red soil and manure, for it would boost my banana yields.”

Pauline bought three lorry-loads of red soil mixed with manure. She added the new soil and manure across the entire farm and reshaped it to allow even better water drainage. 

“The idea was good and I decided to farm arrowroots, because I had just learned about upland arrowroot farming on the television. I planted 2000 suckers,” she said.

Upland arrowroot farming adapts traditional water-loving arrowroots to drier or poorly drained areas by digging trenches, lining them with polythene, and filling them with soil mixed with manure to retain moisture. This allows farmers to grow arrowroots away from rivers and wetlands.

Pauline is using drip irrigation and also planting bananas to provide partial shade and maintain ground moisture.

“I have not harvested yet but I’m very hopeful to get into the market soon as I started farming the arrowroot this year.”

For many other farmers, the level of rain and flooding during the 2025 short season has destroyed their crops.

Arrowroots enjoy strong demand in Kenya, with a kilo selling for between Sh150 and Sh200, making them a high-value crop for farmers.

But agricultural expertise remains a hurdle in growing the crop, and adapting to the changing weather.

“The biggest challenge I am facing, and farmers in Kiambu are facing, is the lack of agricultural assistance from experts. Nowadays, it is hard to get agriculture extension officers and we get into farming with no knowledge and understanding,” she said.

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