How Avocado Farming Is Taking Root in Busia and Western Kenya

Kenya is now one of the leading avocado producers in Africa, exporting to the European Union and the middle East. The main export varieties being the Hass and Fuarte varieties. Central Kenya counties were the first beneficiaries of this lucrative business, followed by the Rift Valley and now the rest of the country is warming up to avocado farming.

In Western Kenya the project was introduced only recently with the first farmers from Kakamega cashing in from the first harvest sometime last year. From there the avocado project moved down to Busia county arriving last year. Teso region was the first to receive them and now as I’m writing this their avocado trees are beginning to fruit. Then early this year, the rest of Busia including Nambale, Butula, and the other regions followed suit.

Personally I have planted twenty stems of the Hass avocado variety and they’re doing fine. Few of my neighbors too have planted. For me I’ve always been interested in fruit farming, and as you know by now I have passion fruits. Read: Diving into passion fruit farming

In this region people have always grown avocados, and rarely would you come to a home that doesn’t have an avocado tree. It’s the very reason until recently you wouldn’t see an avocado in the local markets as no one would buy. I remember my brother in law telling me how at one time while preparing to return to the city, he went to a certain neighbor to buy avocado, handed the owner a hundred shilling note expecting a couple of fruits only to be told he can take as much as he can carry. To people here, avocados and by large most fruits had very little economic value here. Fruits like jackfruits even today are being sold for peanuts, in some homes they’re fed on cattle. But not anymore, people are replacing those local avocado varieties for commercial varieties like Hass  and Fuarte because they’ve seen from farmer’s from other regions in the country smiling all the way to the bank. Why not us?

Recently I read somewhere on Facebook about a certain avocado farmer from Muranga who was pissed at the fact that more farmers were getting into avocado farming while they, the already established farmers were decrying lack of market. I found the post irritating and somehow selfish, if not out of ignorance. This farmer comes from a region that is considered a pioneer of commercial avocado farming in the country and have enjoyed their share of benefits for years, but now that Western part of the country was being invited to share the cake, the likes of him finds a problem with that. Instead of asking the government to find the commodity more market, he’s discouraging other farmers from venturing into avocado farming. The global demand for quality avocados is increasing with each day, meaning at a particular time in the near future the demand is going to surpass the supply if more farmers are not encouraged to plant the crop.

Plus to maintain the position we have as one of the leading exporters of avocados in the continent of Africa, and to beat competition, we need more farmers engaged. We should be encouraging people with land and resources and passion for avocados to start farming, not discouraging them over a seasonal and temporary problem like market.

Recently I saw a certain program on our mainstream media about a certain county now going an extra mile of not only producing avocados for the export market, but now they’re building facilities to do value addition for the fruit and export the byproducts. By doing this they’re going to create thousands of jobs for their young people. Not all of us have land or want to be involved directly in farming, but by creating industries for value addition you end up creating professional and white collar jobs for our graduating youths suffering from unemployment currently being experienced in the country. That should be commended and encouraged by everyone. Only by having leaders thinking that way are we going to solve this unemployment crisis.

If all counties took such initiatives, first encouraging more people especially young people to get into farming of a chosen cash crop, and then creating the infrastructure for doing value addition, do you think as a country we will still be talking unemployment? Such projects have the potential to absorb every youth and in the long run even help decongest our urban centers. Young people are only rushing to cities because of better opportunities lacking in our rural areas. Provide similar opportunities in the villages and see if you will still have people going to the cities in search of jobs. And you can imagine the ripple effect of this if accomplished.

For now I urge Busia county leadership and all the stakeholders in agriculture to invest in avocados and encourage more farmers by assuring markets, extension assistance and quality seeds. Let us deal with the market problem when we get to that bridge. As per now in Western Kenya sugarcane which is mired by unending wrangles is the only cash crop we depend on when compared to counties in Central and Rift Valley which have on top of the avocados, Tea and Coffee both for export market, and you’re wondering why we lag behind. We need an alternative. After all we have the land and climatic conditions for growing quality avocados. Let’s meet here about two years from now when I start harvesting my fruits.