Couple beats all odds to earn big from tobacco

Tobacco farming has for long been viewed as a fruitless venture in Western Kenya by many farmers.

There are various myths about the business that see people steer clear of it. First, is a notion that the farmers end up poor as a result of growing the crop since they do not have any money left for themselves at the end of the season when tobacco processors deduct cost of farm inputs advanced to the growers.

Second, there is word that tobacco farmers are a hungry lot. They dedicate all their land to the cash crop leaving little or no room for subsistence farming.

However, a couple in Changara, Teso North sub-county, are changing the business. Mr Joseph Imeli, 42, and his wife Catherine Amoit, 34, are large-scale tobacco farmers.

JOURNEY TO PROFIT

The two have registered a remarkable journey in tobacco business and they help fellow farmers to reap better yields from the crop.

The couple has been farming tobacco since 1998, a year after Mr Imeli was retrenched. They started small, on an acre of land, which they were given by their parents.

They started off using hand hoes to cultivate and prepare the farm. Their first harvest earned them Sh25,000, part of which they bought a bull to help them ease tilling the land. The impressive returns season after season encouraged them to proceed with the business and by 2000, they had bought four dairy cows to augment their earnings as well as more bulls.

The returns enabled them to buy a two-and-a-half-acre piece of land in 2008 valued at Sh250,000 where they have set up their home.

Today, their tobacco farm is covers six acres. Part of it has been leased from their neighbours.

At the moment, Mr Imeli says, they produce an average of 10 tonnes of dry tobacco leaves every year earning them Sh1.5 million annually. This, he says, is their pay after the contracted company deducts its input costs.

Farmers prefer getting inputs from companies because tobacco is very specific on the type of inputs needed to get the best yields, he notes.

Further, the companies knows where to source the right inputs and they are able to supply them at a lower cost as opposed to the farmers buying them in the market.

“Many farmers start a project without a goal. If one has proper planning and goals, they will surely succeed,” said Mr Imeli.

READY MARKET

The couple noted that tobacco growing as a cash crop is beneficial than other crops since there is ready market for the produce at the end of the season. Once contracted by a company, farmers are assured of a market devoid of middlemen.

The prices for tobacco leaves are set and agreed upon at the start of the planting season.

“The price of tobacco is fixed. Once it has been agreed upon by all stakeholders, it can only be changed after a meeting,” said Mrs Amoit. Last season, each kilo fetched the Imelis Sh163.

The ready market and prices gives the couple an upper hand against other crops grown in the area such as sugarcane and at maize.

Mr Imeli’s only plants maize for subsistence. So far, the only challenge in growing tobacco has only been erratic weather, especially hailstones that destroy the leaves before harvesting. Their counsel to other farmers is to be transparent with their earnings and also be focused on what they want to achieve.

“We are always transparent with our finances. We plan ahead what we want to do with the cash we have received,” said Mrs Amoit. So far, tobacco has seen them educate their eight children and the future looks bright.