His entire family in tow, Jonah Karanja made a stroll while admiring the succulent tomatoes that were blooming inside a greenhouse erected at the edge of his five-acre (about 2 hectares) farm, sandwiched by rolling plains in Nakuru county, located about 160 km northwest of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
The middle-aged farmer is an early adopter of tomatoes grafted using Chinese technology and is optimistic that once the vegetable matures fully, it will fetch him a windfall. "It is my first time to cultivate the grafted tomato and I am impressed by its sheer height and ability to produce more compared with the traditional varieties," Karanja said during a recent interview at his farm.
The non-grafted tomatoes, according to Karanja, were laden with risks including bacterial wilt disease, attack by pests, and vulnerability to harsh weather besides fetching low prices in the local market.
Since 2008, Karanja has been involved in tomato farming albeit with minimal rewards until lately when he adopted the grafted variety whose demand at the farm gate and far away markets has grown exponentially.
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