How I started beautiful orchard without capital

Jehoshaphat Yegon picks a fruit that looks like an apple from one of the trees on his farm and examines it.

“It is almost ripe, I must harvest them immediately lest they start cracking,” says the farmer, who grows the little known pomegranate fruit (Punica granatum) in Soliat ward in Kericho.

Kericho is home to tea farming, with the cash crop occupying acres of land in the agriculturally endowed county, but Yegon has chosen to take a different path.

“I started growing pomegranate in 2005 when I was in Class Five. My father brought the seedlings home after seeing my interest in farming. It took four years for the plants to start bearing the fruits, which we ate at home.”

Sometime in 2009 during a trip while in secondary school, he went to a supermarket and at the fruit section, he saw the pomegranate fruits.

The price of the fruits shocked him. They were being sold at Sh400 each and this opened my eyes since it dawned on me I was sitting on a gold mine.”

He later propagated 30 seedlings from seeds of fruits harvested from the three trees and transferred them on an eighth acre piece of land handed to him by his father,” says the 22-year-old, noting he started the initial business with ‘zero’ capital.

His orchard now consists of 40 mature pomegranate trees and100 two-year old ones, all which occupy half-acre.

“I bought some more seedling at between Sh200 and Sh350. I am the only one farming the crop in this area. It grows well in hot areas with little rainfall, which are the conditions here,” says Yegon, who is also a student at Kisii University studying criminology, as well as an agronomist.

Managing the crop on the farm is not hard, according to him, as all he does is to prune and water them once in a while during extreme dry spells.

MANAGEMENT OF THE CROPS

“They are relatively free of pests and diseases, though the major problem is fruit cracking when ripe,’’ says the farmer.

Another challenge, he says, is market, which is limited as many people don’t know about the fruit. Nevertheless, he has taken to social media to reach a wider market.

“Sixty per cent of my customers I get them through social media, and referrals,” says Yegon, who adds that a local supermarket has also started purchasing the fruits from him.

A mature pomegranate tree produces over 100 fruits a year, and a single fruit goes at Sh80-Sh150.

He makes up to Sh350,000 annually and Sh150,000 from sale of seedlings, including those of bananas, passion fruits and pawpaws that he grows. For those intending to venture into pomegranate farming, Yegon urges them to be patient.

“The plants take years to mature, but after that, come rain come sunshine, you are assured of regular income,’’ he says, adding that itis harvested twice a year.

“The market is untapped. Most of the ones being sold in Kenya are imported from India, so locally, there is huge opportunity. And it doesn’t affect other crops, so you can intercrop with other crops, as you wait for them to mature,’’ says the farmer, who grows the Dholka variety and further propagates pomegranate seedlings.

He plans to increase acreage from the current half-acre to two by next year.

The fruits can be eaten raw, or they can be used to make juice.

“They are very rich in Vitamins C and K and carotene,’’ says Prof Richard Mulwa, a Horticulture and Biotechnology specialist at Egerton University.

He advises a farmer ought not to allow pomegranate fruits to overripe since they will begin cracking.

“The moment they are mature, they should not be allowed to ripen while on the plant because the sugar inside the fruits makes them pick up a lot of water,’’ he advises.