Beating altitude to grow tomatoes

Peter Wambugu with the Students of Kieni Secondary School inside their school's greenhouse in Ol Kalou, Nyandarua County. A standard greenhouse is eight metres by 15 metres and should hold a maximum of 450 plants. PHOTO | JOHN GITHINJI | NMG

What you need to know:

  • Groundsman sets up model greenhouse and earns school sh300,000 in the process.
  • The national government through the Ministry of Agriculture livestock and fisheries conducted the training, showing each of the 10 nominees how to manage a greenhouse productively.
  • The plants will give the best quality tomatoes while at a tender age and as harvesting continues the tomatoes will reduce in size and quality.
  • The project has also helped the school venture into other agricultural practices like cattle keeping and vegetable farming all for the improvement of the schools diet and supplementing the budget of the school from the proceeds raised.

Tomatoes are sensitive to climate and weather and they are particularly hard to grow in high attitude areas.

This fact has, however, not hindered production of this fruit in high attitude areas.

The previous government of Nyandarua County, for instance, started a project targeting schools to illustrate how the crop can be managed in an otherwise cold environment and still attract good returns.

Kieni Secondary School in Kaimbaga ward, Ol’ Kalou, was one of the selected schools that the county government for the project.

The school along with nine others were asked to provide an employee from the school who is conversant with agricultural practices or has interest.

The school’s administration presented Peter Wambugu who had been employed as a groundsman in the school. He fit the bill perfectly since he had acquired a diploma in agriculture from Egerton University.

The national government through the Ministry of Agriculture livestock and fisheries conducted the training, showing each of the 10 nominees how to manage a greenhouse productively.

It is after the training that Wambugu dedicated all his energies to ensuring that the project became a success.

He followed the steps as laid down by the trainers as well as those of the agricultural extension officers and commercial companies enjoined in the project.

And succeed he did, earning the school more than Sh300,000 after a complete harvest of the first crop.

“I ensured that there is no step I missed and kept a record of every activity from setting up of the structure to harvest of the first crop,” he says.

An expert now, Wambugu has been teaching farmers how to manage tomatoes in a green house to get maximum yields in Nyandarua.

“Due to the high altitude in Nyandarua, it is very hard for tomatoes to give maximum yields if planted in the open fields since it is too cold,” says Wambugu.

It is therefore imperative to set up a greenhouse.

HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE

A standard greenhouse room is eight metres by 15 metres and it should hold a maximum of 450 plants.

Wambugu says if all the correct are followed you will get a good crop.

The plants will give the best quality tomatoes while at a tender age and as harvesting continues the tomatoes will reduce in size and quality.

Harvesting starts at three months after planting and continues to up to nine months continuously.

“In our standard greenhouse, we were able to harvest more than 3,500kg in the first crop. Currently we are in the second crop,” says Wambugu.

He adds the project has earned more than monetary value since it has helped ease the economic burden of the local community especially parents who had problems raising school fees for their children.

The project has also helped the school venture into other agricultural practices like cattle keeping and vegetable farming all for the improvement of the schools diet and supplementing the budget of the school from the proceeds raised.

“I am glad that now people in the community know how to manage a vegetable green house, they were used to flower greenhouses whose agronomics are quite different from those of the vegetable greenhouse,” says Charles Kariuki, the principal to the school.

Mr Kariuki has thanked the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries for the project whose impact is being felt all over Nyandarua County since their greenhouse is a model that has been used by farmers as a learning point on greenhouse management.

His sentiments are echoed by Peter Kiarie, the extension officer in charge of Kaimbaga ward.

“I have monitored every step of this project and it has succeeded due to strict adherence of set down procedures and immense hard work put in it,” says Mr Kiarie.

He encourages farmers to take up greenhouse farming since it is highly productive and can be done even on a small plot of land.

He also says one needs up to Sh300,000 to have a fully functional greenhouse.