Farmers in Laikipia county are adopting organic tea tree farming to improve their livelihood following the loss of fertility on their farms due to prolonged use of chemical fertilisers.
"In the past I had to spray my potato plants regularly to ward off attacks. Now with mulching I have really cut costs on farming," said Peter Kinyua, who abandoned farming potatoes for tea tree crop eight years ago due to high cost of production.
Kinyua had been troubled by constant attack of late blight disease so he switched to tea tree plant that is resistant to pests.
Today, the farmer from Nanyuki, Laikipia county, has no regrets.
What the 68-year-old could not achieve as a young man has come to pass in his old age.
Earning more than Sh25,000 from every harvest on his two-acre plot he is able to keep hope alive for his family and see all his six children through secondary school.
"I did not expect to pay Sh65,000 as fees for my son at Kigari Teachers College. But with tea tree farming everything is possible,” said the proud father.
Farmers in Nanyuki grow two types of tea trees — the conversion and organic. After a period of two years, conversion tea tree qualifies for organic type.
A kilogram of the harvested crop goes for Sh12.80 per kilo for organic while conversion tea tree costs Sh11.60 per kilo.
When he bought the two-acre piece of land through savings he had after working for Kamoni Estate firm in the 1960s, Kinyua did not have any plan.
Like any other young lad then, he just wanted to have a family and grow crops for domestic use.
"My parents were taken to Litein during the state of emergency period never to see them again; that is how my dreams of going to school ended. I am lucky I got this piece of land for Sh24,000 as it has changed my life so much,” he said.
In mid 2006, he was introduced to tea tree farming and he vividly remembers when his crop won accolades in Brazil after inspection.
"I felt like a king when oil extracts from my farm were rated the best in Brazil which also made Kenya get market for the produce," he recalls.
From a small plot of land, Kinyua earned Sh16,800 after the first harvest. That is how his appetite for growing tea tree was born and he is still going strong.
Increase in income among small scale farmers, high nutritional content, sustainable soil health and resilient food systems to climate change are some of the benefits of organic farming.
Organic tea tree yields about 8kg of oil compared to the conversion ones that produce 5kg.
Martin Wainaina, Earthoil Extract factory manager, says that the crop grows fast and doesn’t require a lot of water, making Laikipia, Meru and parts of Nyeri perfect places to farm it.
Spacing from one plant to the other is one and a half feet, while between the rows is one feet.
Mulching is applied when the tree is around two feet tall. The waste from the crop is also recycled and used for mulching.
"We train farmers not to use any form of fertiliser or pesticides in their crops, that is why it is called organic tea tree farming,” Chrispine Oduor, a field officer with Earthoil Extracts explains.
A hedge has to be planted between the tea tree and other crops to prevent fertiliser from penetrating to the tea tree during spraying.
Tea tree matures after 15 months and an acre of land is able to give a farmer around seven tonnes of the crop.
Subsequent harvest takes six months from the first harvest and farmers can harvest for over 20 years.
Wainaina said they serve about 700 tea tree farmers in Narumoru, Berguret, Kwa Huku (Nanyuki region), Katheri and Timau in Meru county.
After buying the twigs from farmers, the company extracts oil by first heating them in a boiler. The steam from the leaves is passed through pipes and stored in a tank that is cooled using cold water. After condensing, it liquefies to oil and this is what is used to make cosmetics and other products.
