Farmers in the central county of Nyandarua, which produces 32% of potatoes consumed in Kenya, recently declared to Xinhua that they have benefited from China-built infrastructure projects, including the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), thanks to seamless transportation of their produce to markets far away.
The potato farmers say that China is both an economic and technological powerhouse whose partnership with the Kenyan government could help transform potato farming through technology adoption and enhanced market linkages.
“Through a partnership with China, Kenya could be better placed to develop genetically modified potato varieties that are disease-, pest- and drought-resistant. Kenyan smallholder potato farmers were also keen on adopting best practices on value addition from China, in their quest to boost exports to overseas and more lucrative markets,” Eddie Kamau, a middle-aged potato farmer, declared to the above-mentioned media source.
Potato farmers like him, in the expansive Nyandarua County, are ready to change course as traditional methods of growing the crop have become increasingly unsustainable.
Data compiled by the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture indicate that potato is the country’s second most important staple crop after maize, grown on about 128,000 hectares per year with average yields of eight tons per hectare.
Wachira Kangogo, the CEO of the National Potato Council of Kenya, said leveraging Chinese technologies would be key to transforming the livelihoods of an estimated 500,000 smallholder potato farmers in the country.
“We have quite a several technologies out there in China, which can fit here including storage and processing. They can transform the entire potato value chain and unleash benefits to farmers,” he concluded.
