Sacco changing lives of Meru farmers

In 2004, 25 smallholder farmers in Meru came together to form a self-help group after realising that there was a good market for passion fruits and tree tomato.

Before long, the self-help group’s fortunes started looking up and soon more members joined. This necessitated the expansion of the group into a community-based organisation.

Thus, Imenti Community-based Organisation (Icobo) was born in 2006.

Every member had to register with the group with Sh1,000 and contribute two per cent of their sales to cover administrative costs.

The group also identified a market for their produce in European countries and in 2008, the group was registered as a company to meet the requirements for the export market.

Icobo executive director Mr Paul Kiambi says members could export up to five tonnes of passion fruits and tree tomato to Canada and United Kingdom market.

The company was then raking in more than Sh200,000 every month from the exports.

The group also ventured into exporting arrow-roots but was compelled to abandon it after failing to meet the volumes required every week.

More hurdles were to set in threatening to bring down the organisation. They were forced to stop the export of passion fruits and tree tomatoes when diseases hit hard.

The strict standards imposed by the European market did not help matters either.

However the members, driven by the desire to succeed, changed tack: “When the tree tomato and passion market collapsed, we settled for a fall back plan for value addition of fresh produce,” Mr Kiambi says.

Currently, ICOBO contracts farmers who supply bananas, arrowroots, arrowroot leaves, stinging nettle leaves, Moringa Oleifera leaves, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, pumpkin seed among other indigenous produce which are dried and milled.

He says the farmers received a drier worth Sh480,000 from USAID through the Kenya Horticultural Competitiveness Programme (KHCP) last year enabling them to boost their production capacity.

MARKET BEYOND MERU

“We realized that there is increasing demand for indigenous foods yet the supply is very low. We sort, clean, slice, dry and mill the produce into floor for sale,” he explains.

Mr Kiambi says they produce flour from pumpkin, banana, sweet potato as well as powder of Moringa Oleifera, stinging nettle, amaranth and arrowroot leaves.

“All the products go for between Sh100 and 350 per kilo except for Moringa Oleifera powder which goes for Sh2,500 and stinging nettle Sh800 a kilo.

Mr Kiambi notes that vegetables are hard to find in some parts of the country during dry spells yet a lot of fresh produce go to waste in the rainy season.

“In Meru, a lot of nutritious vegetables go to waste or are fed to animals. So we started drying the vegetables and making powder which is long lasting and reduces wastage. We now make sales of up to Sh500,000 in a good month,” he says.

Although the group is doing well, there is a new challenge; there is increased irrigation farming in Meru and the market for dried vegetables is dwindling.

To address this, the organisation is looking for market beyond Meru.

“We are now getting a lot of interest for the flour and vegetable powder in the arid counties and big towns. The products are gaining popularity because they are durable and nutritious,” Mr Kiambi says.

He says the milled indigenous products can be used as food supplements but can also be consumed separately.

The director says the farmers are now looking into ways of mechanising the processes to cut costs and increase production.

“Currently we have to peel and slice the fruits and tubers using hands which is tedious and time consuming. To meet the export market demand, we need at least three driers of one tonne capacity each as well as peeling and slicing machines. We are sourcing for funding to help us get the machines,” he says.