By MKT Correspondent
The market opportunity for potato processing in the East African Community (EAC) is estimated to represent up to Ksh 120 billion by next year.
According to the National Potato Council, Potato is the second most important crop in Kenya employing about 2.5 million Kenyans and an industry therefore that needs to be protected expanded and value added for food security.
Nyandarua and Narok County potato farmers have come out to form cooperatives in order to meet the rapidly growing consumer demand and also in an organized way be able to have a bargain power in terms of prices and markets.
The Cooperative University of Kenya (CUK) has now taken a major step in transforming the agriculture landscape in four value chains that includes the potato.
Through a programme they are running dubbed “Kenya Rural Transformation Centers Digital Platform (KRTCDP)’, a pioneering initiative aimed at enhancing farmer connectivity, combating market cartels, and bolstering farmer incomes, the University is set to leverage infrastructure to facilitate seamless interactions between farmers and stakeholders across the agriculture value chain
CUK Vice- Chancellor Prof Kamau Ngamau says through KRTCDP project, small holder farmers will gain unprecedented access to vital services, including input suppliers, agro-dealers, and pertinent public resources.
He affirmed ongoing collaborations with numerous cooperatives, poised to support farmers engaged in key value chains targeted by this project in areas of Irish potatoes, maize and dairy.
The KRTCDP project is in line with the Nation’s development plan, which is, to revive and make the agriculture sector profitable and sustainable for better livelihoods and resonates well with new National Government’s Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) 2019-2029 which lays out the Special Economic Processing Zones to implement in Kenya to harness agricultural development.
David Kimotho, chairman of Green Silver Cooperative said when they started in 2016 coming from a self-help group known as Good Times with a membership of only 56 members, they did not know that forming the cooperative was the best thing that would have happened for potato farmers in Dundori area,
“Our numbers have now increased to 500 members. We have been producing potatoes in our farms and looking for a good market collectively and also doing contract farming for different potato varieties depending on the market preference”, he said.
Kimotho said accessing quality and affordable fertilizer is becoming a challenge despite the government selling to them subsidized fertilizer which all farmers cannot access due to long distance from the farmers to the distribution areas.
Beth Wangari, a potato farmer in Dundori, Nyandarua County and who has been producing potatoes for the last 15 years says that the sector has been dwindling as the cost of production has been going up year in, year out.
John Kariuki