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| Archive News from Ndumberi Co-operative Coffee Improvement Project - June 2006 |
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| When Christian missionaries arrived in Kenya in 1893 they also brought with them coffee seeds. The first planting was done at Bura near the coast to the Indian Ocean. Being hot and humid, the area was not suitable for coffee and as the missionaries gradually moved into the interior of the country towards the cooler highlands they carried their coffee seeds with them, eventually arriving in the area just to the north of Nairobi, the city in the sun. Here, encouraged by optimal climatic conditions and suitable soils, the white farmers established acres and acres of coffee plantations in what was predominantly sun grown coffee. The plantations were set on lands whose terrain was flat enough to allow the use of tractors at the farm level. |
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| In the year 1955, African farmers who occupied the beautiful and fertile hills perched between the plantations, utilised the skills learnt from working in the neighbouring coffee plantations to plant coffee trees in their own small farms. At this time in Kenya coffee smallholder farmers and pulping stations were very few and widely scattered. 'Our parents used to trek over 10km carrying basketfuls of coffee on their backs to what is now Gititu wet mill of Gititu Co-operative' notes Mr Raymond Gitau, the current chairman of Ndumberi Co-operative society. |
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| In 1960, the number of smallholder farmers around the Ndumberi area had increased to 462 and the idea of forming their own co-operative was conceived. The society became operational in the year 1962 following the commissioning of the first wet mill namely Ndumberi. |
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| The Ndumberi region is inhabited by the industrious Kikuyu tribe of central Kenya, a section of the larger Bantu speaking community. The Kikuyu are famous for their skills in combining the growing of crops and the keeping of livestock in small farms in the densely populated central highlands. The growth of coffee growing in Ndumberi was phenomenal, and this led to the construction of two more wet mills namely Riabai in 1968 and Ngaita in 1977. Today Ndumberi is a mature co-op with over 2,000 active farmers with over half of them being women. |
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| Mr Peter Mugogo, a retired civil servant who currently runs a small farm with the help of his wife Njeri, has seen the local coffee business undergo a metamorphosis to what it is today. 'Coffee is what paid for my education and that of my many brothers and sisters' discloses Mr Mugogo, who is the sixth born in a family of ten children from one wife within a polygamous familyof three wives. 'My father used to work in a neighbouring estate as a casual worker'. |
| To supplement his income all the family members would work in the 9-acre family farm, half of which was under coffee. After the death of his father in 1970 the farm was subdivided among the three wives. 'Some of my brothers, unable to survive the low coffee prices experienced a decade ago, quit farming opting to look for employment in the Kiambu town and Nairobi city that are only a few minutes drive away. The FOUR SQUARE and the Utz Kapeh project have brought a lot of hope to us' quips Mugogo. 'My interest in coffee has been aroused once again and I have decided to revive coffee trees in the neglected portions of land belonging to my brothers' discloses Mugogo. The villagers have noticed his efforts and have appointed him the farmers' representative in the two ongoing projects. Mr Mugogo, whose name means “bridge” in the local dialect, is going to form an important link between the farmers on the one hand and the project team and society management on the other. |
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| Mr Mugogo manages his 4 acres as a mixed farm, keeping a few dairy cows, goats, and chickens. He occasionally hires his neighbours to assist his wife to feed the animals and to pick coffee from his 500 trees. Mr Mugogo uses all the manure from his animals to fertilise his crops and coffee. 'We are focusing on quality' asserts Mrs Mugogo, 'We hand pick only the ripe cherry and we deliver the cherry to Ngaita wet mill for pulping the same day. Pruning has always been a problem, but it is over now thanks to the qualified extension officer who has been employed by the Utz Kapeh Project and provided with a motor cycle, we can now get advisory services from him' she adds. 'Our wet mills are renovated thanks to the FOUR SQUARE Project and we hope our buyer will now match the coffee quality with the coffee price' Mrs Mugogo quickly adds, anticipating a good quality produce from the co-op. |
| The wet mill managers, fresh from in-service courses conducted at the local coffee research foundation and knowing very well that the Ndumberi coffee farmers are now more quality focussed than ever before, are keen to put their newly acquired skills to practice as they process coffee. |
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| 'I have changed my cropping pattern to sustain the fertility of the soils. I am no longer using inorganic fertilisers, and I am opting for organic manure from my animals and composts. I have also introduced rows of banana trees at intervals especially in steep sections to stop soil erosion. Next season I will plant beans in my coffee to fix some nitrogen in my soils' says Mr Mugogo. |
| 'We have also introduced goats and bee keeping in our farm, diversifying our enterprise has always been our strength... It sees us through tough times when coffee prices are low. We are grateful to God for blessing us with a good season after a dry spell. This season we have more fodder, maize and coffee' discloses Mrs Mugogo. |
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| Most of the Ndumberi farmers are back to coffee farming. The early crop season has just begun and the farmers have delivered over 100 tons of cherry to the co-op. It is now common to see farmers offloading several bags of cherry from old but newly renovated pick-up trucks, a clear sign that farmers are now taking coffee farming seriously. |
| 'We are happy to see a coffee buyer visit us so frequently and invest money to renovate out wet mills' says a farmer as she lifts up a basketful of coffee from a weighing scale at Ndumberi wet mill. 'Our wet mills have been given a new lease of life thanks to the FOUR SQUARE project. Our Utz certification is on course, we believe our late crop produce will be Utz Kapeh certified. Using the project money, we will soon issue tenders to qualified contractors to construct permanent drying racks and renovate our water re-circulation system, this will assist us to get the Utz Kapeh certification' discloses Mr Raymond Gitau, the co-op Chairman. |
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| Ndumberi received above average rainfall this season. Coffee trees responded by a beautiful flowering after the dry spell that had stressed coffee trees to the maximum. It is estimated that farmers will deliver over 1.1 million-kg cherry to the 3 newly renovated wet mills. It is anticipated that the quality that will come from farms will be maintained at the processing level. The end result will be a good cup that is charateristic of Kenya Arabica often described by the experts as the 'red wine of coffee' due to its extremely complex acidity, fruity flavours, winy aroma and lingering sweet afte taste. |
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| We provide regular newsletters on our projects in Kenya. Read recent and archive news from the Ndumberi Co-operative Coffee Improvement Project. |
| » Read the current news from Ndumberi |
| » More archive newsletters from Ndumberi |
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