Field progress report: Determining the trade-offs between short and long horticulture value chains in Kenya

Project title: Determining the trade-offs between short and long horticulture value chains in Kenya

Field progress report

June 10th 2024

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Highlights

• GROOTS has been collecting data in Murang’a (completed in May 2024), Meru (completed in May 2024), Narok (June 1-9, 2024) and Kisii (on going from June 10, 2024)
• Project team has been conducting a survey from households producing bananas, African nightshade and kales
• The project team observed that production is carried on land parcels that are of about one acre and often integrated with maize, cowpeas, bean, and coffee
• Women involved more in Kales and African night shade while men involved in banana
• Kales and African night shade enterprises are “short” value chain – mostly sold to consumers at farmgate or at the local market
• Banana is largely a “long” value chain – product bought by middlemen and sold to major towns. But value does not necessarily accrue to the household
• Banana is the most organized value chain - with aggregators/middlemen contracting farmers and farmer groups, mostly informally

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Murang`a case

Case Study 1: Benson Mwangi (Maragua Sub-County)

Benson Mwangi is a 50-year-old farmer based at Maragua Sub-County, Nginda Ward, Ikundu Village. Benson Mwangi has been into farming for over 20 years and focused his skills on producing crops, including bananas and livestock—dairy goats. Benson Mwangi is a member of the Nginda Irrigation Scheme, founded in 2023, an initiative supported by the World Bank. The initiative brings together about ten self-help groups, each with 30 banana farmers, and has helped in putting irrigation systems in place for their farms. The initiative seeks to organize itself into a banana cooperative to ease banana marketing and, probably, value addition. “We intend to develop our cooperative rather than joining in an already existing cooperative so that we can have the liberty to grow our selling network and add value for our product,” said the chairman of the Irrigation Scheme.

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Benson Mwangi explained how other household members, specifically sons, played a critical role in his journey towards the e-commercialization of his farm produce. In late 2022, Benson Mwangi, through his sons, created accounts on social media platforms—Facebook and WhatsApp—to market his bananas, the two accounts being leveraged solely for marketing bananas. The farmer takes photos of the market-ready bananas and posts them on different groups, where the buyers can inquire if they are interested in the products. He then contacts the buyers and decides on the quantity, price, and prospective days of the transaction at the farm gate. On arrival, the buyer makes cash payments and then proceeds to harvest the bananas.

“Once my bananas are ready, I take photos and post them on my WhatsApp and Facebook accounts, including the prices, depending on the size of the bunch. On these platforms, I can make my subscribers aware of my products, who consequently reach out if interested in making purchases. However, most of my farmer-clients are people we have related [to] before and mainly from the region.”

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The farmer reported cutting costs and time for marketing his products through selling on these platforms. They do not have to make physical trips to the local markets – Mukuyu, Mbombo, and Sabasaba to take the bananas for sale. “Initially, I would ripen the banana, then transport it to Mbombo market where my wife would sell it to consumers directly, which was time consuming and tiresome. I preferred selling using this approach instead of selling to a broker as they would offtake one (1) medium-sized bunch [for] 200 shillings,” he said. Overall, Benson Mwangi has managed to enhance his marketing strategy, consequently delivering improved household income.

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In addition to using social media platforms, Benson has also used another e-marketing platform, ‘The Jiji platform’, for marketing other agricultural produce—specifically, dairy goats. With the help of his sons, he has plans to adopt such platforms for marketing bananas.

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Meru County

• Banana is the major crop grown in the area, with few growing managu in their kitchen garden for consumption.
• Some farmers that were interviewed sell their bananas to Twiga Foods, however, they do not interact with the Twiga Foods online platform in any way. Twiga Foods acts just like a normal company that buys from the farmers and, sometimes, pays immediately, or after a week, through their agent in the area. The majority of them sell their bananas in kgs, going for 12-18 shillings per kg. They also sell their bananas through brokers who take the produce far distances, e.g., Mombasa, etc.
• At our sample sites, we observed that most brokers are female. Farmers report that they prefer female brokers to male brokers due to fast and prompt payment. The female brokers are financers who loan out to the farmer and pay them back during harvesting season. The women interviewed have access and use but not ownership of land, which is titled under the husband.
• Women report that the head of the household—predominately the male in the household—decides on use of the proceeds from the sale of bananas.
• Women reported that they are prone to being asked how much they earn from the sales of bananas and how they intend to use the money, whereas their husbands don't disclose their income and spending habits.  Women reported that they contribute more on household expenditures than their husbands (most spend the money on drinking spree).
• In Abothuguci Central, in Meru Central constituency, banana farmers have adopted ICT to receive extension service from KALRO on banana crop management and market information on fertilizer availability from NCPB.

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