After his education, Cyrus Nyakundi was able to secure a job with a horticulture company in Nairobi as an extension officer, a job he did not rely mostly on during his four years of his employment.
The 30-year-old who runs five tissue banana nurseries in Kisii County has been able to achieve what most Kenyan youth would term as wealth. He started banana farming when he was still employed and this motivated him so much that he decided to quit the job after a local politician ordered for 100,000 banana suckers which he could not afford since he was only a small scale farmer.
This was a great challenge to him and he took it as an opportunity to ensure that he is able to sustain his family. Being the first born, everyone looked upon him and he had to do something.
He started the tissue culture method of farming to produce banana suckers in 2010 and he spent Sh 1.6 million from his savings to purchase his first 10, 000 stems to start his first horticulture seedlings nursery.
This is after he received training from Africa Harvest where he learned the benefits of tissue culture plants.
He added: “Most of the people confuse tissue culture with genetically modified organs (GMOs) but after the training, I was able to differentiate the two. I decided to venture into this seedling nursery after a tissue culture lab was introduced in Kisii town by Walter Nyambati.”
With tissue culture plants, a farmer chooses a sucker from his shamba and they are taken to the laboratory for testing.
“This is to ensure that there is no disease in that sucker since most banana diseases are transferred through soil. After they are tested, they are taken into the lab for preparation, slicing and also for maturity so that they can be put in a nursery,” he said.
He said that tissue culture farming has a lot of benefits since they mature faster and also have higher yields in comparison to the normal plants. He added that after the seedlings are out of the laboratory, they are put in tubes in green house for further hardening.
After he ventured into this farming, Nyakundi was able to earn Sh600, 000 as profit since he was the only farmer in that area. He is currently earning Sh900, 000 per month excluding January, February and March when he does not produce seedlings.
“I am also a tomato farmer and I have nurseries for grafted mangoes and avocados. However I prefer tissue culture farming since it is more profitable,” he added.
He added that for one stem to be perfect for plantation, it takes around 12 months and he sells them at Sh100 per stem. He adds that this year he has been able to sell 936,000 stems and has 40,000 more booked before the year ends.
He said that the demand is very high since the county government of Kisii wants to plant one million tissue culture bananas by July next year.
Nyakundi has been able to open a tissue culture banana lab and has employed 54 people.