With tea tree oil plant, I never lack a ready market for my produce

Alice Muthambure waters tea trees at her farm in Mirera village. She is among the farmers who have been contracted by Earth Oil Company to supply tea trees that tha used to manufacture cosmetics. (Jacinta Mutura, Standard)

Few years back, Alice Muthambure was on her farm in Mirera village, Laikipia County minding her own business when a group of people visited her.

The team from Earth Oil were making door-to-door rounds educating farmers on the myriad benefits of tea trees.

After much convincing, Ms Muthambure is among 826 framers who agreed to embrace the crop.

The plant is used to make cosmetics using oil extracted from the leaves.

To start off, farmers were given seedlings to plant and the company committed to buy plants at Sh20 per kilo once they were mature.

Initially, Muthambure had planted 500 seedlings in a section of her five acres farm. The plants took one year to mature for first time harvests and six months during subsequent harvests.

“They are organically grown and we are not allowed to use any chemicals like pesticides due to sensitivity of the products,” explains Muthambure.

Tea trees she says, are low maintenance.

She sells them between Sh40,000 and Sh80,000 after six months. Their weight increases as the plant grows taller and bigger.

“The first time I harvested 3,000 kilos and the company bought the plants at Sh60, 000. I could not save such amount of money in one year and the plants grow bigger and taller so the harvests keep on increasing,” she points out.

Positive attributes

Drought-resistance nature of tea trees and low maintenance cost are among the aspects the farmers in the locality like about planting the trees.

“Other plants like maize need water but tea trees are drought resistant.I don’t have to water all the time but the yields are good,” she says.

However, some farmers who do not have enough land for food crops planted fewer seedlings and hence relatively lower income than those with large tracks of land.

Tea trees are harvested when they are four feet tall by cutting the branches and leaves.

The farmers then avail them at collection points where field officers from Earth Oil weigh them and pay instantly.

 “A single plant can yield 10 kilos and I already have over 5,000 trees in my farm,” she says adding that she bought more seedling from the company at Sh3 each to fill up another portion of land.

“I like this project because the buyer is already in waiting end and the plant is low cost and maintenance. All I need to do is water it maybe once a week and add manure for good development.”

A field officer from the company says the plants are processed locally to produce oil that is exported to the UK for further processing to manufacture cosmetic such as deodorant, hydrant, body spray, and perfumes among others.

The company has so far contracted 826 farmers in Laikipia, Meru and Nyeri counties who are currently doing 400 acres.

He, however, says they are not able to meet demand adding that they intend to train 1,000 more farmers in different counties.