Researchers have shown that Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas have the ideal weather and soils to make the country a leading producer of date fruits whose imports have grown by triple figures in the last decade.
Dates, or tendes as they are more commonly called, are among the first ever fruits to be eaten by man. The Old World fruit has been grown more than 4,000 years before the birth of Christ. Its cultivation in Kenya however remains limited despite research done by KALRO showing that much of Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, which make up 82 per cent of the country, can be used to grow dates. This includes: North Eastern counties of Marsabit, Garissa, Wajir, Isiolo, and Mandera, parts of the Rift Valley in Turkana, Baringo, and Elgeyo Marakwet), areas of the Coast, i.e., Tana River, Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta counties and Eastern Kenya in Makueni and Kitui. “These are regions that have a hot and dry climate and fertile, deep, sandy loam soils which the fruit prefers,” noted the researchers.
One farmer doing just that is Ramesh Gorasia, the owner of Kutch Kibwezi Farm in Makueni County. The sprawling 400-acre million shilling concern on the country’s Yatta Plateau, is the country’s pioneer date farm which holds more than 2,500 date trees.
The trees that thrive in dusty arid to semi-arid Kibwezi grow on 600 mm of rainfall for most of the year. This is however supplemented by irrigation water from River Athi because of the area facing increased periods of drought especially in January as the tree starts to flower and then fruit.
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According to the farm’s manager Godfrey Kioko, it is much more beneficial for a farmer in arid and semi-arid parts of the county to grow 10 date trees which never lack a market than maize which won’t grow because of drought or even cowpeas which will fetch little in the market.
Kenya currently produces just 1,118 tonnes of the fruit annually and imports a whooping 7,597 tonnes despite its climate being suited to date farming. The majority of these fruits are sold in Mombasa and Nairobi. A kilogram of the desert fruit is sold at the farmgate for Sh300 to Sh1,000 depending on the season.
Dates produce well with just 600-1,000mm of rain each year and according to the FAO, the fruit can grow in temperatures that are as high as 56°C if they have adequate water. They however produce their maximum amount of fruits at 32°C and their yields begin to slowly decrease once the temperatures are above 38°C or 40°C.
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They also have the added advantage of being able to be grown with salty water which could take advantage of the waters from the world’s largest permanent desert lake which is currently unusable for much irrigation because of being slightly salty.
“Most of the date trees in Kenya were planted throughout the 1900s as part of the government’s feasibility study where it imported suckers to find out the potential of date palm farming in Kenya,” said KALRO researcher Lusike Wasilwa.
Between 1989 to 1996 an estimated 345 hectares of Kenya’s land was under date palms with annual yields as high as 100kg a tree.
Most of these dates which were grown on irrigation schemes were unfortunately left unattended to and died because the fruits were harvested by farmers but sold through the schemes and the money did not trickle back to the farmers. Yields in schemes such as the Turkwell Irrigation Scheme plantation fell to zero in 2001 from a high of 2,500kg in 1998.
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The people in the arid areas where the dates were planted were also pastoralists who were not taught of the potential profits of the fruit.
“Date palms can however be used to improve the economic and food insecurity of farmers in arid and semi-arid areas as they have a ready market that peaks in Ramadhan but is available throughout the year,” added Wasilwa.