After about 30 minutes of moving up and down the farm, the women pick and carry all the potatoes and put them under a shade in a nearby homestead.
Rose Lubanga, a member who is leading the team today, asks women to divide themselves into groups of three or four and take up some roles which include peeling the potatoes, lighting fire and washing equipment to use.
Lubanga and three others settle for peeling potatoes. “Today is one of those days we meet as a group, harvest and make products from potatoes. We do value addition. Right now, we want to make fries and crisps from potatoes,” she begins.
She explains the potato business has been very useful to women, providing the necessary income during needy times.
Before coming together to form the Kumi Bora Women Group in 2017, these women were not involved in any income-generating activity.
This made their lives hard since they couldn’t raise any money of their own, settle their own bills, or contribute to merry-go-rounds and table banking. They depended on their husbands, who at times did not have money, especially for those who are not employed.
After forming the group, they decided to plant and sell potatoes to help generate income.
“We sat down and agreed to venture into potato farming because it was the dominant crop, synonymous with the area and our local people,” explains Lubanga.
They say, raising the capital of Ksh.200 each to start potato farming was not easy members. Determined, that even without capital, the group vowed to go on with their plans.
At this time, they agreed each member plants potatoes on their own farms.
“We agreed that each of us plant potatoes on our own farms and after that, seek a joint market. Some of us planted in quarter, half and others one-acre lands. We used local potato vines for planting,” she explains.
The first harvest was little, but the group resolved to go on with farming potatoes, promising to look for ways to improve the produce in future.
She however explains the subsequence low produce was associated with uncertified traditional vines they were used to planting and also lacked skills in managing potatoes.
The production would also depend on the weather; when there is enough rain, the harvest is good and in a prolonged dry season, the harvest is low.
Lubanga explains they started increasing their production with time but their main challenge was a lack of markets for potatoes.
“Our area is known for potatoes and many people rely on potato farming for livelihoods, therefore the markets are always flooded with potatoes round the year, with very low prices. The plenty of brokers who offered low prices further worsened the market. We sold a very small percentage of our produce,” she says.
The group regrets losing a lot of potatoes that missed the market. Although some were eaten at home, a lot of them rot, resulting in huge losses, due to lack of proper storage facilities.
However, the group’s potatoes farming came to a complete turn following the intervention by the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP), a government project being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Fisheries and Irrigation, State Department for Crop Development with funding support from the World Bank.
According to the project, agriculture is a major driver of the Kenyan economy and the dominant source of employment for roughly half of Kenyans.
Yet, farmers, especially smallholders still find challenges in producing enough, which in turn limits income for most people in rural areas. As such, the challenges of poverty remain high.
“The project is therefore designed to address the main constraints facing the agricultural sector in Kenya by increasing agricultural production and productivity using community participatory and value chain approaches,” she says.
Lubanga remembers a day in 2019 when Agricultural Officers from Migori County visited and invited women to a meeting. Here, they met NARIGP and after a long discussion, the group was told to write a proposal on how they wanted to be assisted.
The group settled on potato farming, detailing the challenges they were facing such as a lack of markets, storage facilities and training in managing potatoes.
After vetting, their proposal qualified for the project funding, for around Ksh.500,000 that went into training, purchase of equipment and inputs, including certified seed varieties.
She says NARIGP trained them on the importance of the potatoes, and how especially the improved ones are better and more nutritious than ordinary potatoes. They also took them through how to raise the vines in a nursery, land preparation, weeding, managing diseases, harvesting, and marketing through bargaining together, especially in a cooperative and value addition.
“In value addition, we were trained on how to manufacture various products from potatoes such as french fries and flour which can, in turn, be used to bake mandazi, chapatti and cakes,” she explains.
They also trained in packaging, expanding business, how to register with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBBS).
NARIGP also gave them a tractor to help them till the land. Lubanga says in training, they used the farmer field school (FFS) approach where they learned using a demo farm.
After training, and provision of equipment and inputs such as clean certified vines, the group embarked on potato farming.
They have nicknamed their potato variety Mengo, from the Kuria language. They share that the improved potato variety has high production.
Unlike before when they used to till their land using jembes, today, the group uses the walking tractor, making it easier.
Lubanga explains, instead of selling the raw potatoes, the skills they learned in value addition have helped them process various products such as flour they use to make mandazi, chapatis, biscuits, cakes and flour. They also make potato crisps and chips.
Currently, they have two brands, Mengo flour and Mengo crisps.
Lubanga says; “Initially, people were used to products like chapatis and mandazi from wheat flour. However, when we gave them ours to taste, they liked and have since been our customers.”
Even the people who did not like potatoes, because of eating them frequently have embraced their value-added products.
With value-added products, the group has reduced wastage and losses that initially resulted in dealing with raw potatoes.
The sales from value-added products are now giving the group more money. They also sell potato vines to other farmers in the area.
They sell their products within the community, nearby shopping centres and Migori town. She says they also have customers who buy on orders.
In a month, Lubanga says the group gets and saves at least Ksh.20,000 after subtracting all the expenses.
She explains that unlike before when women would entirely depend on their husbands for finances, today, women are making their own money.
Apart from paying for their merry-go-rounds and table banking, they also support their men in paying bills at home.
The group says they hope to get a good harvest in June, thanks to the long March-May rains.
Despite the impressive progress, the group faces challenges of prolonged drought, which lowers their production. They are also affected by rodents.
As the group promises to expand their potato farming, the women wish to get more training in especially storage and post-production handling.
Lubanga says; “We wish to get a permanent source of water that we can use for irrigation in times of long droughts.” BY CITIZEN DIGITAL