The small vegetable that spins big cash

Joseph Mumira in his brinjal farm in Eldoret. PHOTO | STANLEY KIMUGE |

What you need to know:

  • Mumira normally transplants the seedlings to the farm after four weeks, where they take about a month and two weeks to develop pink and yellow flowers before they start producing the purple fruits.
  • Brinjal is drought-tolerant, thus it can thrive well in areas with hot weather. It does well in parts of lower Eastern, Rift Valley and Nyanza.

He smiles as he plucks small purple fruits from one plant to another on his half-acre farm in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.

It is harvest season, and just like any other farmer, Joseph Mumira is looking forward to this time.

The farmer grows eggplant (Solanum melongena), a crop that is used to flavour food, make salad or is cooked as a vegetable.

The Asian crop comes in different colours that include white, purple and green, adding aesthetic value to one’s farm. The purple variety is the commonest.

Locally, eggplant is known as biringanya but its other names are brinjal, garden egg and guinea squash.

“I have 200 brinjals on part of my half-acre farm,” says the 57-year-old farmer, who also farms spinach, sukuma wiki (collard green), sweet potatoes and maize.

To grow the crop, the farmer normally plants seeds first in beds before transferring them to the farm.

“The soil should be mixed with well-composted manure before planting the seeds. Then the beds should be watered every day to make the seeds sprout from the soil, which happens after 10 days.”

Mumira normally transplants the seedlings to the farm after four weeks, where they take about a month and two weeks to develop pink and yellow flowers before they start producing the purple fruits.

“Eggplant becomes ready in three months. When it is fully mature, it develops a glossy dark-purpled skin. It is sweet when still glossy but when it stays longer on the farm, it develops some green patches that put off buyers,” says Murima, who started planting the crop early this year.

His first attempt to plant the crop realised poor harvest because of heavy rains between March to May.

“The crop performs well in sunny conditions where it flowers and produces big fruits.”

He harvests about 70kg of brinjals every week, which he sells to traders in Eldoret.

A kilo goes for between Sh40 and Sh70, depending on demand, which peaks in December when he sells each fruit for Sh10 to Sh30.

“The harvest is not bad because I only use Sh200 to buy seeds and earn about Sh10,000 a month.”

However, it is not the weather that is the farmer’s biggest headache.

Pests such as red spider mites attack the plant, but the good thing about the crop is that it is resilient.

“Spider mites suck juice from the plant’s leaves, making them wither. I normally spray the plants once a week with pesticides to keep the insects at bay,” Murima, who was introduced to the crop by an agricultural extension officer, says.

Brinjal is drought-tolerant, thus it can thrive well in areas with hot weather. It does well in parts of lower Eastern, Rift Valley and Nyanza.