Arrowroot farming: an option for farmers on swampy land

Have you ever inquired for the price of arrowroots (nduma), scientifically, Maranta arundinacea in Nairobi? If you have then you will agree with me that arrowroot farming is a gold mine.

In the streets of Nairobi one nduma goes for between 100 and 200 Kshs. depending on the size. Here in the village, those unscrupulous middlemen are buying a 90 kg bag at Kshs. 30,000. And Kenyans are always asking for them, meaning the demand is always high for this commodity.

There’s of course the other version of arrowroots, pale when peeled that traders sell in Nairobi — we plant as decorations in our flower garden — and Nairobians buy when they can’t get the real one. But the Kenyans who have tasted the real arrowroots from Western Kenya and other places like Central, and Rift Valley will never settle for that thing.

But we only have this deficit in the market because most farmers on swampy land are ignorant of the value of that lucrative crop and the government has not tried to encourage it. While doing my agriculture class in highschool, never came across root crops like arrowroots, yams,sweet potatoes, cassavas, just to name a few, being highlighted by teachers and taught. Yet we are talking about ending food insecurity in Africa and other developing parts of the world. Are we not lying to ourselves?

We all know that there are very few crops that can thrive on poor soils such as the one in swampy and marshy lands which have poorly drained soils. Apart from rice, I don’t think I can name any other important crop. And small holder farmers with only a few patches of land on swampy lands or on riparian land can’t grow rice and hope to get an income at the end of the day. Except arrowroots.

A quarter an acre of arrowroots with medium spacing can give a farmer about 3000 arrowroot tubes in less than a year because the crop takes about six months to mature. And with one going for let’s say 100, you can see that the farmer has 300,000 Kenya Shillings, which is quite a lot of money. Unfortunately most farmers are ignorant of this information which leaves them struggling to grow crops on that poorly drained soil that only gives them poor yields. Some farmers have even given up on such land and left it to lie fallow.

In Budalangi, Busia County for instance, those folks in Sio Port have been struggling with floods that wreck havoc in their farms leaving them counting losses every season because they’re all going for maize and other crops the rest of Kenyans are growing, if not rice. But what if they planted arrowroots which is not that much threatened by water?

But I guess it’s our obligation as a youth of this nation to educate our people and show them another way if we are to escape poverty, and help put an end to food insecurity.

The uses of arrowroot are many like drying and making powder which can be used in making infant formula and as a thickener in baking. The powder can also be used as a stabilising agent in making biscuits and such things. Health benefits include boosting body immunity, regulation of the heartbeat and blood pressure, aiding in digestion and clearing excess cholesterol.

I love eating nduma. They always leave my stomach protruding like a pregnant woman. And when I returned from the city, noticed this piece of our land bordering River Sio lying fallow with its dark clay soils. And now that it’s heavily raining in the Western region, the soils were waterlogged, reason for mother’s apprehension in tilling the land. I thought it was perfect for farming nduma.

I prepared the land by clearing the bush, tilled it with a hoe and soon it was ready. But a problem arose, where to get seeds, which are never sold in an agrovet like other seeds. This crop like bananas you plant using a sucker propagated by plucking the shoots that grow from a mature plant which you can only get from another farmer.

So I went around the village asking around but nothing, the few farmers were not willing to hand over their precious crop to me, not even after I had offered to pay. But one old farmer, a retired teacher and father to a former comrade at The Technical University of Kenya who’s now in the Air Force offered to give me some for for free for showing initiative. I was humbled by the gesture.

Well, yesterday at exactly ten o’clock I was at his farm like he asked to pick up the seeds. I was surprised to receive 40 seeds plus the promise of another batch in a week’s time which I appreciated. I planted them the same day. From these I’m going to propagate my own seeds and hopefully in less than two years I’ll be able to plant more than 2000 stems which will be a good start, before we can get other alternatives to growing this good crop without depending on swamps like the new technique known as upland arrowroots technology.

Planting
Varieties commonly grown in Kenya are two: Dasheen and Eddoe. The Dasheen is known for its large tubers while Eddoe, the smaller variety is better suited to grow uplands far from swampy lands because they’re more tolerant.

Arrowroots require a temp. if 21-30 degrees Celsius and a PH of 5.5-6.5. They’re planted in holes with a diameter of one and a half feet and a depth of one feet. The spacing is ²0-30 cm to give ample space for the crop to grow.

Place a sucker in each hole and lightly cover with soil, after some period of time add manure and mulch to prevent loss of moisture during intense heat.