Single-stem coffee variety offers farmers’ group fresh hope

A member of the Mrware Organic Coffee Growers Self-Help Group in Nyeri County inspects her coffee plants. The group's members use organic methods to grow the crop. 

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Based in Muruguru village, a few kilometres from Nyeri Town, Julius Wahome, one of the farmers, has dug trenches separating each row of his coffee plantation.
  • According to him, the new farming system has the potential to produce more than 100kg per stem as opposed to 3kg farmers harvest under the old farming method.
  • Poor payment, badly run cooperatives, expensive farm inputs and diseases have slowed down the industry as the government intensifies efforts to revamp it.
  • Every coffee bush is allowed to grow up to a height of two metres, each bearing 50 branches that can offer 30 nodes capable of carrying at least 30 berries.

A group of farmers in Nyeri County are banking on organic coffee growing to double their production and earnings.

Based in Muruguru village, a few kilometres from Nyeri Town, Julius Wahome, one of the farmers, has dug trenches separating each row of his coffee plantation.

Each trench hosts either sweet potato vines or napier grass to prevent erosion.

He has mulched each coffee stem with dry grass to help retain moisture in the soil.

Wahome is the chairman of Mrware Organic Coffee Growers Self-Help Group, made up of over 50 members who are using organic methods to grow the crop.

Under the organic practices, the farmers use single-stem system of growing coffee, where they only allow one stem per tree.

Some farmers using the traditional methods allow up to four stems on one plant making it hard to manage the tree.

“With the single-stem system, the tree’s tap root is able to feed it as opposed to multiple stems that affect production,” says Wahome.

According to him, the new farming system has the potential to produce more than 100kg per stem as opposed to 3kg farmers harvest under the old farming method.

Guarantees production of high quality berries

The group started two years ago has since delivered 17,000kg to Ndaroini Coffee Growers Association, earning Sh115 per kilo of cherry. The coffee is sold directly to Dutch company Trabocca Bv.

Charles Karinga, an agronomist, says the average production of coffee in the region per bush is 3 to 15kg with good farming practices.

Poor payment, badly run cooperatives, expensive farm inputs and diseases have slowed down the industry as the government intensifies efforts to revamp it.

For a young coffee tree that cannot feed through its roots, the group applies foliar feed in the first 14 days, then after 21 days and then at 28 days and gradually after every month.

To join the group, farmers cleared multiple stems to remain with only one of the SL28, SL 34 and Ruiru coffee varieties.

Every coffee bush is allowed to grow up to a height of two metres, each bearing 50 branches that can offer 30 nodes capable of carrying at least 30 berries.

Gitonga says the single-stem system guarantees production of high quality berries of AA, AB and PB grades.

However, coffee expert Paul Muhoro say for organic farming to flourish, farmers must get specific seeds, which are not available currently.

He adds that there is no local or international demand for organic coffee from Kenya. 
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