Ukambani
is known for many
things, among which an abundance of rainfall isn’t. Yet, in most areas of these drylands, mango trees spring up wildly, easily,
with the casual arrogance of a traffic cop.
Their
zeal to survive is unmatched whatever their environment throws at them. They
mature into these juicy, nearly-round fruits which, sadly, we only get to enjoy
during their single season in December.
But just
like George Orwell’s animals, not all mangos are equal. While the hardcore
variety roughs it out in the wild, their domesticated peers wallow in lavish
care and attention. These are the yellow and reddish type very common in the
market and are often a resultant variety from a process of grafting which
merges the wild plant with an exotic variety.
The new
hybrid tree combines both the resilience of the traditional tree and a better
harvest gene from the exotic seed.
Daniel
Kasuvu, a mango farmer from Katiliku in Makueni county understands both the
pain and the triumphs that come with mango farming which he has been practicing
since 2008.
Like
many farmers around him, Kasuvu, grew maize and beans but the harvest was
always frustrating due to inadequate rains. This led him to rethink, and since he
was born and brought up in Makueni, mangoes as an alternative crop came to him
as naturally as potatoes do for cooks in Mount Kenya region.
He had
observed the resilience of the mango tree against an environment encumbered by
inadequate rains and had grown to admire the good life that those that had
mastered the farming of mangoes enjoyed.
On his eight
acres of land, Kasuvu planted 600 trees and sought the help of his uncle in
grafting to improve the variety. It was
a rough start as most of his seedlings died off. But he kept replanting,
fetching water with a jerrycan from a nearby river. Imagine watering eight
acres of land with a jerry can only to find such thirsty grounds. He tells us
that one jerrycan would only satisfy the thirst of four trees.
Against
numerous odds, the seeds finally bloomed to give him his first harvest after
two years. Kasuvu says this was an exciting stage, similar to witnessing your
child say their first words. He started off by supplying his neighbours in
Nairobi with the fruit, but as the harvest multiplied, Kasuvu was forced to
sell the fruit to brokers whose trucks are a common sight in Makueni during the
mango season.
These
brokers, he says, buy the crop from farmers at a throw-away price to resell at
a higher price. Farmers here say that unlike their counterparts in Kibwezi whose
mangoes mature around September, theirs mature later in the year finding the
market already flooded.
Farmers
who have no alternative markets are forced to distribute their mangoes through
the brokers in the trucks who then ferry the fruit to markets in Nairobi and
beyond the borders.
Kasuvu’s
plight reflects what many of his peers are enduring. While they have sacrificed
to produce adequately for the season, the forces of demand and supply are
frustrating their efforts.
But
even as the market struggles to give better returns to farmers, the situation
can be remedied using modern preservation methods.
Mango
drying is slowly becoming popular among farmers. The process involves taking
the mangoes to the factory where they are stored in cold rooms. Here, they are
then cleaned, peeled, and sliced before being taken to solar driers.
While a
raw mango will retail at Sh15 per Kg, a similar quantity of dried mango flakes will
retail at Sh650.
While
precaution is to be taken to maintain the quality of the fruit, mangoes pressed
into a pulp can be stored easily and transported to markets beyond the borders.
Farmers
are further advised to organize into cooperatives which can enable them to pull
together resources to put up mango processing factories and preservation
storage rooms. Being able to stagger the supply in the market will help to
stabilize the prices.
Whats
more? With the African Heads of State and Government adopting the African Union
Action Plan for “Boosting Intra-African Trade and the Establishment of a Continental
Free Trade Area”, in January of 2012, the market for the processed mango can
only keep on growing.
