Photography | Courtesy
“By the time we set up come here in 2003, we used to import 90 per cent of our seeds needs from Uganda and Tanzania. We have now started seeing local supplies going up because of our partnership with the farmers,” Bharat said in an interview. transported to Nairobi’s Ngara market to be sold as vegetables. Now married with children, the moringa tree is still a feature of Mjoba’s lifestyle. Since 2007, he makes regular journeys to Nairobi, this time not with the leaves but with the seeds, to sell to processors who use them to make beauty products. Wayne Bharat is the Managing Director of Earth Oil EPZ, one of the main buyers of moringa seeds from farmers like Mjoba.
Opportunity He said local farmers have a big opportunity to gain from the export market of processed moringa seeds. “We are going for a gradual increase now that local farmers are keen to grow moringa”. Before Earth Oil set up a factory in
Kenya, Mjoba says farmers in Taita Taveta who had known about the value of the seeds since 1997 used to export to Arusha, Tanzania. “We grow individually but we have now formed a farmers’ group to help us exchange ideas and take care of our welfare. I have 236 trees, but planted 250 more because of the increasing demand. My parents have 1,120 trees. One acre can take about 400 trees. The tree farming has helped me to build a house, get married, educate my child and support my relatives,” says Mjoba.
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August 2012
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