UASIN GISHU, Kenya- For Larry Keya, a resident of Kapseret in Uasin Gishu County, harvesting 500 kilogrammes of cucumbers from a single greenhouse on his first attempt in 2012 was a huge accomplishment.
But Keya had to watch in agony as his crops withered in a home store after the harvest he had grown was turned down by vendors he approached at Eldoret’s main market.
“I was told the cucumbers had done well, but unluckily, they had bent and thus unsuitable for the market; I did not understand the concept and just watched the bumper harvest I had invested Sh150,000 youth fund loan in go to waste,” he added.
Keya, an Agriculture Economics graduate from Moi University, claims that despite the devastating loss, he gained valuable knowledge that has enabled him to be a content farmer.
He has no intention of quitting the profitable endeavour made possible by the nation’s enormous food demand.
“I had the idea to devise a means to preserve the produce as I observed the cucumbers, and I expected to pay off the loan and repay my work. I resolved to give making cucumber and watermelon juice a shot after doing lots of research online,” Keya explained.
What is the favourable weather for watermelon farming in Kenya
In Kenya, the weather in March is often favourable, providing the melon with the best conditions for growth in market areas with irrigation.
Water is a limiting factor; thus, growing melon in February and March ensures a farmer a Return on Investment because there won’t be an abundance during the April/May market period.
Meanwhile, Keya told Y News that he bought a blending machine to process cucumber and watermelon juice but that, at first, customer uptake could have been higher because the blends were not well-liked in the market. Keya had started growing tomatoes and capsicum in a greenhouse in 2010.
“I kept pushing the juice in Eldoret’s local markets, collaborating with several sellers, but customers were still determining if they would like the new combination. After researching how to position my product in the market, I decided to make popsicles with cucumber and watermelon,” Keya stated.
How Larry Keya supplemented his value-addition concept
To implement his value-addition concept, Keya spent Sh 120,000 in January 2014 on the necessary equipment to make Popsicles, which are sticks with flavorful ice or ice cream.
“It is not very cumbersome to make the ice cream flavours provided you have the right machines; you just extract juice from the fruits, make and then mix the syrup of the juice with little additives, then freeze them on sticks,” he said.
Cucumbers can be grown outdoors in an open field or indoors, such as in a greenhouse. Rich in nutrients, they thrive in loamy, well-drained soils with an ideal pH range of 6.5 to 7.5.
They may thrive at elevations up to 1700 metres above sea level, with 18 to 30 degrees Celsius being the ideal growth temperature.
How much Larry Keya previously earned from his agribusiness venture
Keya, a young agricultural entrepreneur, further said he could produce 700 ice cream stick pieces daily and sell an average of 500 at a wholesale price of Sh5 to vendors, earning Sh 2500 per day with a 60 p c profit margin.
To properly tend to the greenhouses where he grows the essential raw materials for the high-end product—cucumber and tomato—he also mentioned that he needed to familiarise her wife with the processes involved in creating the popsicles.
“The demand for the popsicles increased because the vendors used to come back by afternoon asking us to get more, and this prompted us to get a high-capacity production machine at Sh 380 000 that makes 7800 pieces in 20 hours, making us manage the ever-rising demand,” he said.
Keya believes the machine is effective because it forms and sizes the ice cream to suit various customer niches.
How much does Larry Kenya currently take home from his trade
He now sells larger popsicles for Sh 7 apiece, averaging 900 sales daily and bringing in Sh 6300.
However, he had to purchase watermelons and pineapples from other farmers to keep up with the increasing daily demand.
“We have at least ten vendors who get them wholesale at Sh7 and sell them between Sh10 and Sh15. To fully utilise the machine, we began making yoghurt on a stick using the same procedure of cucumber and watermelon popsicles, and the product that sells at Sh20 on wholesale is doing pretty well,” he said.
