Sustainable Urban Economic Development Programme
Working with Municipalities to Attract Investments into Climate Resilient Value Chain Projects
In Sub-Saharan Africa, potato farming is gaining traction as an important food crop. Its high yields, relatively shorter growth cycle (90120 days) compared to other food crops and nutritional value makes it a major staple food in developing countries such as Kenya. In Kenya, the potato crop is the second most important food crop after maize and is majorly grown by small holder farmers across the country. When compared to maize, it is less affected by climate change which is a high factor in mitigating against food loss to combat hunger in the country and provides a way in which households can raise income. In majority of the homesteads that it is grown, it plays a dual role both as a cash and food crop.
Despite its huge economic potential on the famers, the potato marketing value chain has been largely ineffective with farmers getting fewer returns when compared to other agricultural value chains. Such as maize Potato famers face a number of challenges that deter them from increasing their income such as: a) the extension of potato bags1 by middlemen which they use to fleece farmers when purchasing potatoes, b) a lack of storage facilities making them sell the potatoes at low prices at harvest while consumers pay double or triple at market during low season. With the potato yielding four times as much on the same land as other grains, farmers to enable them to reach their earning potential.
1 Kenya has in place regulations that have a rule that state that all potato bags/sacks should be 50 kilogrammes. However, traders and transporters extend the bags to increase the number of potatoes that are carried in the bags. This method favours the traders who by the potatoes cheaply in the extended bags, then go to market and repackage them into smaller units which they then sell at a significantly higher price short charging the farmers.
Figure 1: The British High Commissioner to Kenya H.E. Jane Marriot together with the Elgeyo Marakwet Governor H.E. Wisley Rotich visit to a potato farm in Iten Municipality and engaged with a small holder farmer Faith Kimaiyo. Faith shared on how the new processing plant will help them mitigate against postharvest losses and increase their income.To mitigate the aforementioned challenges, the UK Government through its Sustainable Urban Economic Development Programme (SUED) together with Elgeyo Marakwet County and Iten Municipality, and in partnership with Select Fresh Produce Kenya Limited (Select Fresh) is establishing an Irish and sweet potato processing plant in Iten Municipality that will serve thousands of small holder farmers in the Rift Valley region. The plant will process ready cut fresh and frozen Irish potato and sweet potato fries (chips) for local and export markets. The plant will enable the small holder farmers to meet the increasing demand for potatoes in urban centers and to contribute to greater food security in the county due to potatoes not being susceptible to international commodity market fluctuations. The programme together with the County, Municipality and Select fresh is addressing the key drivers of potato production i.e., climate change, potato production systems, productivity and postharvest handling and storage losses.
To make the economic diversification of the municipality climate resilient, the programme together with the municipality are promoting the need to look into food crops with short growth cycles such as the potato to enable farmers to take advantage of the changing rainfall patterns. By having a private investor located within the municipality to provide a ready market, farmers will be encouraged to integrate potato farming into their grain farming. By encouraging production systems that promote small scale mixed farming, the farmers will build their adaptability to a wide variety of climate change trends.
To support the farmers to ensure that they have a favourable variety that can be exported, the municipality and the operator will be providing agricultural extension services that provide educational information on the varieties that match international standards as well as provide seedlings. The adoption of these varieties will enable them to replace old lines based on yields2, reduce the susceptibility to disease as well as align with the market preferences.
To mitigate against the widespread inconsistencies in the County, the Municipality and agricultural department will work with farmers to increase their potato growth yield by helping them assess the quality of the seed utilised to ensure the quality of the harvest is assured. In doing so, the potato processing plant will have sustainable operations all year round by processing both Irish and sweet potatoes which have different harvest times.
Working with the farmers, the County and Municipality will be integrating best practices in postharvest handling practices at the farm level that include sorting grading, weighting, and packaging. By prioritising the sorting activity at farm level, farmers will be able to fetch better (farm gate) prices when they bring it to the SUED supported potato processing plant. This will help the farmers quickly sell the potatoes to Select Fresh who will put in place storage facilities that will avoid spoilage. By selling to Select Fresh during harvest season, farmers will be able to sell at a standard rate without running a loss.
The launch of the projectwas done by the British High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott and Elgeyo Marakwet County Governor H.E. Wisley Rotich in January 2023. The 60,000-tonne processing plant for Irish and sweet potatoes will see the improvement of the farm produce for local and export markets. By having in place the various interventions, the plant will help in reducing post-harvest losses and provide a ready market to off take the potatoes, guaranteeing steady farm prices for over 10,000 small holder potato farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet and the North Rift Valley region. In addition, to increasing farm yields, the project will also enhance the existing farmer cooperative societies by providing the necessary training and capacity building to farmers on better farming methods.
The UK Government played a key role in catalysing this investment by providing expert advice and £735,000(100 million Kes) in seed fund support. This complements Select Fresh’s £15.4 million (~2.4 billion Kes) investment into the project. In the first year of operation the plant will produce 30,000 tonnes of Irish potatoes and 30,000 tonnes of sweet potatoes into fresh and frozen fries in the first year with production increasing to 50,000 tonnes each in five years. By having the facility in Elgeyo Marakwet,
2 The utilisation of old lines in potato farming is cropping practice that allows farmers to use the same field lines for farming as a method for disease suppression
5,000 jobs will be created in the first year of operation with the projection to reach 10,000 within five years.
Speaking at the launch of the project in Iten, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Select Fresh Ms. Eunice Mutua said “We are happy to bring to Iten a Potato Processing Plant that has been a result of the collaboration between the UK Government and the Elgeyo Marakwet County Government. At Select Fresh our intent is work closely with small holder farmers to ensure that what they produce meets international standards for export. When we complete the potato processing plant and start exporting to Europe, we will put Kenya on the map as the third country in Africa that exports potatoes. We are keen to ensure that the methods that we use are environmentally friendly and promote climate resilience.”