Knowledge utilised is power

A farmer, member of Nembure farmers’ cooperative society in Kenya, describes how he managed to break the circle of poverty through farm diversification and improved marketing. The fact to interact and socialise with other farmers of the cooperative has been the start of and has been his major motivation to remain member of the cooperative. The cooperative has further supported him all the way to smoothly roll out his first initiatives towards more intensive farming. Despite the improvements and continuous support, he finds he remains vulnerable to market price fluctuations.

“He had always been eager for information and received this information by socialising with people. This was initially also his main reason for joining the cooperative. In the cooperative, he was informed on the potential of growing passion fruits. Initially he planted 70 un-grafted plants and his initiative grew eventually to cultivating 280 of grafted plants. He also started investing in poles, wires and sprays to fully protect his plants. According to him, the production costs are reasonable but market price fluctuations can pose problems. The fruits are harvested and marketed locally on a weekly basis and brokers collect them from the farm to sell at the Embu market. His passion fruits fetch an average Kenyan shillings 6,000 per month, which is an additional income to his traditional coffee and subsistence farming. Since he succeeded in growing passion fruits, he has also expanded his farm towards papaya, water melon and tomatoes. These complement his income when the passion fruit price is low. He feels relieved because he doesn’t have to worry anymore about family expenses and school fees. He is a proud father now.”