A tale of two regions;sweet potato farming in North Carolina and Kabondo Kenya

Embracing the Inevitable and Putting our sweet potato growers on the highway

The last week has been quite eventful as we work hard to to launch the first sweet potato cooperative company in Kenya.WE launched an online fundraising campaigns ;we met potential investors for our sweet potato project;we met potential future partners in our agribusiness and registered  the company.

A sweet potato farm in North Carolina.Consistent quality and standardization of produce has enabled farmers in NC to access European markets,including Ireland!

 In this post, I will draw parallels between sweet potato farmers in Kabondo Kenya and North Carolina in the US.Both regions are the top producers of sweet potatoes in their respective countries but that's where the similarities end.North Carolina is a success story in utilizing innovation in the production and marketing of sweet potatoes with a bright future ahead. North Carolina has also adopted innovative marketing techniques that have seen them break into the European market which is quite remarkable because sweet potatoes are not European staples. Kabondo in Kenya has had small successes in production but that success has now been succeeded by stagnation,exploitation and an unbreakable poverty trap.

A farmer in Kabondo Kenya packs sweet potatoes into bags.We need innovation to succeed in the long term.

 So what has gone wrong for the farmers of Kabondo and what lessons can we draw from the sweet potato farmers of North Carolina?What we need to do:

• Innovate:Hard work alone is not enough,we need innovation to succeed.Innovations with equipment, seed technology and pest management has kept NC farmers ahead of the pack.Farmers here ,in cooperation with North Carolina State University have developed new sweet potato varieties,like the jewel variety now planted in 90% of NC farms.Farmers in NC practice the production technology called micropropagation which involves the transfer of plantlets from in vitro culture to propagation beds.It is a technique of rapid multiplication of sweetpotato used to obtain a large number of stem cuttings in a very short time.The production of genetic materials of the highest sanitary quality can be made from in vitro plantlets free of viruses, which are propagated in greenhouses or other constructions that prevent the presence of insects or other virus vectors, and that isolate the plants from other contamination sources.
• The role of technology:If something is inevitable the embrace it. We obviously missed out on the green revolution in the 60s and that's why we still rely on food aid.WE must not rely on rain fed agriculture alone when we can afford irrigation technology from companies like John Deere,we must adopt micropropagation and build rapid multiplication sites for sweet potato stem cuttings so that we can put new nutrient rich and marketable varieties of sweet potatoes in the hands of our farmers.The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute(KARI) is one of the best agricultural research institutions in this region but that research will not add value to our farmers if we do not bridge the gap between the farmers of Kabondo and KARI.That research must be converted into something tangible,food to be precise.Kabondo Farms will aim to be that bridge that links our farmers to new ideas.
• There is need for Institutional structure in the rural areas where our farmers are based to provide organization and long term support to farmers in terms of advocacy,support for innovation,financial support,technical support and support in terms of prospecting for new markets.Farmers in North Carolina have the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission,a non profit that works hard to "increase sweet potato consumption by collectively organising funding promotional programs;providing timely and relevant information to farmers and consumers,funding research and development projects;and encouraging the use of good seed stock and horticultural practices among producers." 
• We will need a management structure to provide long term solutions to the sweet potato farmers of Kabondo.WE must therefore put in place a professional  mode of management that formulates and implements our vision in a way that impacts a large number of smallholder farmers.We will need an agronomist, a researcher,marketing professionals,trainers to ensure every farmer has an acess to the best practices.

To ensure we reap maximum profits from our enterprises, we must emulate the successes of regions like North Carolina.