Plant a fruit for every tree seedling this year

By Okech Kendo

Most Kenyans’ attachment to land may not be adding value to the wellbeing of the nation.

It is not just enough to claim ownership of a piece of the earth if the most important factor of production cannot help ease food insecurity.

And one does not even have to struggle to help feed the nation. If the fruits of toil on your land benefits your family, your village, and your local community then that is as generous as it should be.

And that is the idea of subsistence agriculture: Good land should provide a livelihood for its users.

When a family eats the country eats. When there is food insecurity in one village, then that becomes the beginning of want for other families as well.

Yet many Kenyans have not appreciated the value of even a tiny piece of land whose ownership they claim with religious passion.

Mythical curse

So much land lie idle or underused while millions of people are starving. In some cases people prefer to buy from local markets what they can grow on their own farms.

Sometimes some resort to myth to justify their inability to grow certain crops or even fruits.

The case of oranges is particularly interesting in some parts of Nyanza. Although oranges can grow in Kasipul-Kabondo, Bonchari and Rongo, many villagers long gave up on these fruits.

And they have a myth to rationalise the failure to make sense and cents from their land.

It is claimed that a Seventh Day Adventist Church Pastor, the late ‘Prophet’ Joshua Rume was so infuriated when a woman refused to give him some of the oranges she was taking to the market to sell.

The ‘prophet’ cursed the land upon which the fruits he was denied grew. The curse is believed to have been active for generations after it was unleashed thanks to the greed of one peasant woman.

The myth is widespread and oranges are supposed to wither when they are expected to be flowering. Some of the lean and low quality oranges you buy at Sh10 a piece, are imported from Tanzania.

The seedless citrus come from South Africa or the desert lands of Egypt. One now sells at Sh40 or Sh380 a kilogramme.

Meanwhile local potential is stifled by a curse, without scientific rationale. Even if the ‘curser’ were a man of God, it would not be logical to expect the Almighty to tolerate such abuse of power for personal thirst.

That Kenya is food insecure is a fact that needs no belabouring.

While the State must take political responsibility for frequent famines, individuals should strive to feed themselves before demanding their constitutional right to food from the Government.

The Government sitting in Nairobi exists to create an enabling environment for individuals and communities to feed themselves. But they should not expect the Government to plant tree and fruit seedlings in their a quarter of an acre land in Sondu, Kisumu Country or Chuka in Meru.

One needs to think about these things to understand how we have let ourselves down by forgetting that what we eat, whether fruits; grains, cereals, beef, milk and vegetables come from land.

Also remember that many of us Kenyans claim ownership of some piece of land — grabbed, bought or inherited.

We need to ask whether we, as individuals and communities, are making better use of the land — our land.

Shades and shapes

The embarrassing fact is that most of us do not. Worse, most of us who live and work in towns have made children believe that fruits, for example, come from Nakumatt or Uchumi supermarkets.

Others think these seeds of the soil come from Wakulima Market in down and out town Nairobi or Toi Market in Kibera. They may as well be, literally. But these retail outlets are running out of foods that can be grown locally, and sold anywhere in this country.

Five years ago, Suneka Market in Kisii County was paved with bananas of all shapes, in difference shades and shapes of ripeness.

Some were ready to eat; some were ready to cook. This was one large market for fruits for travellers on the Sirare-Nairobi highway.

Nairobi-bound trucks would load and deliver hundreds at Wakulima Market in Nairobi.

Then prices of fruits in the city were affordable because supply was guaranteed. Not any more because the famished bananas you are likely to get in any Nairobi supermarket are imported from Uganda. Baganda farmers now reap where Abagusii and Ameru peasants once made a comfortable livelihood.

Final word

The women who used to hawk bananas now hunt for casual labour across villages. Suneka is today a pale shadow of its renown.

The prices of all fruits have gone up while quality has crashed. The stranded middle class cannot afford them anymore.

The sweet Nyambane-type bananas is disappearing. Pieces that once sold for Sh5 have hit the Sh10 point when there is supply from Kisii or Meru. And we shall soon be saying goodbye to local bananas because our peasants are not planting any more, and old stocks are wearing thin.

The good value bananas are endangered because much of the land has been subdivided to unproductive units, and thinning out still.

My final word on this fifth day of the New Year is, plant a fruit tree for every other tree. Do it today because procrastination is a thief of time.

-Writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.