Local pumpkin farmers are now taking the venture a notch higher by adding value to the fruit to make high value products such as oil, jam and flour targeting a wide range of consumers to solve market and storage challenges besides increasing their income.
Inheriting the venture from her parents, Bernice Mwihaki, a pumpkin farmer from Kerugoya in Kirinyaga County used to split the fruit and sell them to customers at around Sh20 a piece while the seeds were castoff.
Even after adopting the hybrid seeds of giant Israel variety she did not know that the fruit that weighs 10-15 kilos in six months maturity period could earn her more than Sh500 the price she sold it when raw until she got to learn how to produce other products from it during an agricultural show.
With her first Sh200,000 earnings in 2016 after harvesting about 11 tonnes from their three acres piece of plot, Mwihaki with her husband decided that in order to face off marketing challenges they had to purchase a processing machine.
‘’Before, raw pumpkins used to be of high demand and few farmers were in the venture then, but now there are many farmers growing them and the only way to avoid marketing and storage challenges is to process it and make more valuable products,’’ said Mwihaki.
Today, when they harvest their fruits, they cut them into smaller pieces, remove the seeds, dry them under a shade to avoid leaching of nutrients by direct sunlight before crushing the dried pieces of pumpkin using the machine and process the seeds too.
She says, from six tonnes of the fruits a lone she can get up to 1,000 kilos of flour while from the five kilos of the crop, she can get 250 ml of the pumpkin oil which results to 10-20 bottles of 250 ml oil and 1,000 kilos of flour daily.
‘’We package the products under our brand name, Wilber Farm, and sell a 250 ml bottle of the oil at Sh500 and sells roasted pumpkin seeds at Sh400 per 100 grams,’’ said Mwihaki.
Double income
For William Githinji, another pumpkin farmer from Nyeri County he is currently earning him more than double the income he earned from selling the produce when fresh thanks to processing of the fruit seeds into oil, a practice he started in 2018.
“I borrowed pumpkin production idea from a farmer who used to produce the crop while the demand of the fruits was high as many farmers had not picked it up. However, with time, many farmers have adopted the crop and there is market competition causing price and storage challenges,” he said.
I was then forced to think of an alternative way to make more out of the venture after learning from some of my customers I used to sell the produce to and who were making oil and flour from it and selling at a much higher price.
Having not yet bought his own machine, Githinji is hiring one crush dried pieces of pumpkin and process the seeds.
Like Mwihaki, Githinji can from six tonnes of pumpkin get up to 1,000 kilos of pumpkin powder while from five kilos of the fruit, he can get 250ml of pumpkin oil.
‘’I sell a 250ml bottle of the oil at Sh15,000. He also sells roasted pumpkin seeds at Sh400 per 100g under Green Patch Farm brand name.’’
He grows about five varieties of giant pumpkins namely; Israel giant, Egyptian giant, Equatorial giant and dollar.
Pumpkin is steadily rising as a superfood among Kenyan health conscious consumers and local farmers are increasingly taking advantage of this to not only sell the raw fruit but also process it to make flour, oil and other products giving them higher income.
Health benefits
Gladys Mugambi, a nutritionist working with the Ministry of Health says that pumpkins have tonnes of health benefits as they are low in calories, rich in iron, zinc, fibre and high in vitamin C and beta carotene, a precursor of vitamin A among others.
‘’This is one fruit that is promising high commercial returns to our farmers who are already or planning to venture in its production because it is good for a wide range of consumers from just ordinary persons to expectant women and to children,’’ said Mugambi.
Furthermore, pumpkin seeds’ flour is used as a protein supplement in bread and cookies while the flour could be used to supplement cereal flours in bakery products, soups, instant noodles and natural colouring agent in pasta and flour mixes.
Githinji can be reached on +254 719 504 157 while Mwihaki on 0722405692
