Meet Alice Chuaga, greenhouse farmer from Nyeri who says her passion and use of cheap materials is what has driven her to attain this kind of success. Ms Chuaga says she opted for improvised greenhouses with lower maintenance costs, that uses water more efficiently and one that can be easily moved to cut on setup costs. An average greenhouse unit of eight metres by 30 meters costs about Sh200,000. This cost includes laying pipes for drip irrigation. Ms Chuaga says farmers who are unable to afford the steel structures can build their own greenhouses using timber poles at a much lower cost. “I set aside Sh16,000 to personally construct and install the pipes for drip irrigation for a single greenhouse unit and now I own three,” she says. “I have two greenhouses on my a quarter plot in Nyeri where I plant tomatoes and capsicums,” Ms Chuaga says, adding that she has already erected the third one in her kitchen garden to grow passion fruits. “My first Anna F1 tomatoes harvest from the improvised greenhouse in my kitchen garden was quite notable. I harvested 19,000 kilogrammes (kg) of tomatoes which I sold at Sh110 per kg.” The tomatoes mature after 75 days and after each harvest she says she collects between Sh209,000 to Sh450,000. Although prices fluctuate because of supply and demand, she says during low seasons she harvests 3,016 kgs of tomatoes with a kilo going for as low as Sh60 but on the higher side a kg would go for Sh110. “I sell the tomatoes to hotels in town, individuals and some to my neighbours,” she says. The mother of three also grows capsicums. She says any vegetable can be grown in greenhouses and capsicum has fetched her good profits. “I got the idea from my friends in Nairobi. The first time, I managed to harvest 20kgs of red and yellow capsicums. Recently, I earned Sh160,000 from selling capsicums to ABC Place and Zuchiri hotel in Nairobi and Mombasa.’’ To cushion her from tough times especially during low production or market glut, she says has also planted sukuma wiki among other vegetables in her backyard and does not lack Sh1,400 from weekly sales. Besides greenhouse farming, Ms Chuaga also keeps 180 indigenous chicken where a mature cock goes for Sh1,200 and a hen Sh600. The once impoverished farmer, Ms Chuaga is now reaping the fruits of her labour. She now counts the millions of shillings that she has earned from growing tomatoes, capsicums, kales, broccoli, cauliflower and onions and from sale of chicken and eggs.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:37:10 +0000
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