Agro-Business Feature By Leo Odera Omolo

A locally incorporated enterprise is working on a tentative programme to introduce the highly valued Vanila as a new cash crop for commercial farming and production in the suburb and rural areas around Kenya ¢s Lake Victoria region.

Mabwa Enterprise Limited is working in collaboration with other agricultural service providing companies on a very tentative programme in the interior part of the country around Lake Victoria .
This private company is headed by a former Kenyan career diplomat Dr. Kipkorir Rana.

The company is also collaborating with the Maseno University , which is expected to provide the training of farmers{tot}, and research and analysis for the commercial growing and production of high quality products.

Mabwa Enterprise Limited in collaboration with other service providing companies will provide the agro-business service such as inputs, seedlings, training of farmers, professional and monitoring services as well as marketing

According Dr. Rana, the project is aimed at wealth creation through enterprise development, and employment opportunities for the jobless hundreds of Kenyan youth in both the suburban and rural areas of Lake Victoria region around the Kisumu City .

Primarily the project is targeting 355 small scale farmers and 23 curers{industrialists} to build the foundation of an enterprising Vanila industry in the lake region.

Vanila is a high value crop that has to be introduced under highly skilled labor and management. The crop from the family of orchids, classified as Vanila plantolia was first cultivated by Totonic people who inhabit the Mazantla Valley on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the present day state of Veracruz . Its cured fruit{Vanila Beans} are the second most expensive spice in the world market after Saffron.

Vanila has a potential of becoming a major cash crop in the Coastal and Lake Victoria regions of Kenya and the entire eastern African region surpassing all the economic and commercial value of other crops such as tea, coffee and cut-flowers in foreign exchange earnings.

Vanila grow as a vine, climbing on existing trees and if left alone can grow upwards as high as possible producing few flowers. On the farm, workers periodically fold of the high [parts of the plant downwards to make it accessible. The downward growth of the plant also greatly stimulates flowering.

For along time {nearly 300 years}, Mexico held a virtual monopoly over the production and sale of the crop because its flowers can only be naturally pollinated by a specific Melipone bee species found only in Mexico .

But in 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped the first Vanila seedlings to the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius . And with the discovery of a simple and efficient artificial pollination method by a 12 year old African slave named Edmond Albius from Reunion Island , the prospects for commercial production of Vanila become a reality in tropical Africa .

This method is knowledge based and labor intensive. By the year 1998, Madagascar , Reunion and the Comoros Islands produced 80 per cent of the world¢s total production of estimated at 200 metric tons.

The main use for Vanila and its by-products is for flavoring food, drinks, soaps, ointment, perfumes, and incenses. This, according to an expert, is done by adding Vanila extract or cured Vanila pods. In the liquid preparation, natural Vanila gives a brown or yellow colours to preparation, depending on the concentration.

Vanila is also used extensively in baking and dairy products such as milk. yoghurts, and ice creams, and deserts, chocolate, cookies, pancake and soft cheeses. Vanila flavored also available in liquors, soda beverages, tea and coffee.

Vanila is grown commercially in many tropical regions of the world for domestic consumption and exports. a steadily rising prices

In 2006, Madagascar produced 6,200 metric tons of Vanila, which was an average of 59 per cent of the globe production. Other top producers are Indonesia [2399 tons],the People¢s Republic of China {1,000 tons}, Mexico {306 tons}, Uganda {195 tons}, Kenya and other producers only produced 8 tons of cured Vanila during he same period.

The production of this highly valued cash crops has never satisfied the world increasing demand. But with increased Chinese and Indian middle class consumers, the world is likely to see steadily rising prices.

Presently, though Vanila prices are on the lower side. .A kilo of green Vanila is fetching USD 57 while that which is cured is priced between USD 25 and UASD 250 based on quality .As prized commodity that is also affected by the vagaries of weather. The crop has its boom and in 2003 prices had shot up reaching the peak of USD 550 per a kilo.

.As an environmentally friendly, the Vanila project in Kisumu and its environs is a private sector initiative, therefore its introduction in the lake region as a cash crop is expected to have a profound and positive economic impact on the region that for many years had relied on sugar cane farming and fishing as its economic mainstay.

The company, which is behind the Vanila introduction project envisions that a one acre plantation costing less than one million Kenyan shillings on a piece of land belonging to a farmer. The Vanila vine takes three years before producing green beans or pods.

Those initial production during the third year is only 50 per cent level at one kilo per vine. From the fourth year, the vine produces about 2 kilos of green Vanila ever year and thereafter.

Consequently for this important project to succeed, there is a need to provide a financial package to local farmers that can caters for financial costs in addition to operational costs during the first three years of a possible seven year loan..

Experts projections is that for a farmer to plant an acre of Vanila, such a farmer would need approximately Kshs 700,000 and an additional Kshs 350 million as maintenance and operational cost during the second and third year, the amount which will be beneficial to the financing partners in the long run gaining valuable incomes.

Each Vanila farmer, according to the project¢s study is expected to clear the loan repayment in full amount of loan taken plus interests and other financial charges totallin Kshs 44,423.. A three years starters loan for each curer and industrialist of Vanila will need a financial backing of Kshs 7 million, that will realize a Kshs 1.9 muillion in accrued interests.

The financial costs are calculated at 14 per cent per annum. The prices of green Vanila could flactuates at time, but expected not to fall below Kshs 300 per kilo

As that of cured at USD 50 per kg depending on the exchange rates of the dollar.

.The financiers partners will earn Kshs 157.9 million from the expected farm loans and Kshs 45,086,046 from the curing factories and more from trade financing.

As a community service project, and to ensure the success of the project the promoting excellence in production, the Mabwa Enterprise Limitd has requested its financial partners to provide Maseno University with a grant of Kshs 10.8 million in financing the project. Such collaboration in the community between farmers and entrepreneurs, the financing institute, and Maseno University is expected to create and the most lucrative industry Kisumu City and its environs that at the end of ten years will generate income of Kshs 689,217,235 for the 355 collaborating farmers and an estimated average of Kshs 747,500,000 for the 23 curers-industrialists.

The grant aid of Kshs 10.8 for Maseno University is expected to be utilized towards the development of an approximately 10 acres of Vanilla plantation with 8,000 vanila vines and 10,000 atrophic plants with equal number of banana and other crops will initiate university a community outreach program that will promote real, lasting development. The funds will also assist the university in capacity building, creating a prototype curing factory, and laboratory facilities

.Sea side beach land and low altitude lake region are the ideal situation for vanilla plantations to flourish as they do in Madagascar , Comoros and in the Mukono area of Uganda .

The most suitable climate for vanilla is hot and humid weather with the soil slightly sandy with clay and river silts. Organic farming methods that are combined with high quality production and supervision carried out by trained farmers can sustain this new industry in Kenya .

Like most commercially successful agricultural crops such as sugar, coffee and tea, the vanilla crop takes approximately 2 to 3 years to produce its first substantial crop/ Thereafter. a vanilla plant produces approximately 2 kilos of green vanilla every six months. And in order to sustain the venture to its frustration, the farmers and entrepreneurs will require development finance and soft loans.

Farmers in the region have welcomed the new venture with enthusiasm as its plantation will extend into several districts around the Lake Victoria froim Busia and Bungom,a in Western Province to all the districts surroundings the lake in Nyanza Province.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 04:55:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: VANILA IS TO BE INTRODUCED AS NEW HIGHLY VALUED CASH CROP IN WESTERN AND NYANZA PROVINCES OF KENYA .