The year 2011has brought mixed fortunes for farmers with some crops, previously touted as best performers moving to overproduction and market saturation, while other virgin crops recorded stellar results in both local and international sales.

“Farmers need to realise that much as there is hype about a new crop that has market demand they need to have that information early enough, when the market for the commodity is still at its infancy and not many farmers are competing to sell their products: if they can manage to be the first growers and ultimately sellers, then they are guaranteed to get good returns,” said Dr. Cain Zidi from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Perhaps the year’s hardest knock for late entrants, who moved into a crop in such numbers that it ended up over-supplied and often unsellable, came on tissue culture bananas. Now thousands of kilos rot on smallholdings, leaving a trail of disappointment rfo farmers who abandoned their original crop for the promise of better returns on bananas.

Researchers and market analysts are also sounding an alarm on the Yellow passion fruit, another of the wonder crops, which at the end of last year was unveiled by KARI giving yields per hectare ranging from 30 to 40 tonnes per harvest, compared to 15 for the traditional purple variety. “The thing with Yellow Passion fruit is that it is not at a dire market situation like TC bananas, but in the next six months it could be headed there, so any farmer intent on going that way should reconsider his options,” said Thuita Warui a scientist with KARI.

However, new untapped crops continue to offer hope to farmers of outstanding returns in the year ahead.

Stevia, a plant that makes a sweetener preferred by health conscious consumers keen on cutting down calories and diabetics, has already repositioned farmers as consumers, pushed by high sugar prices and shortages, sourced for alternatives. The plant has been in Kenya, even growing in the wild, until farmers in Molo realized its potential. Planting half an acre produces 500kg of leaves selling at an average Sh2300 per kilo, meaning a farmer gets Sh1.5 million in one harvest.

“I was among the pioneer farmers who embraced the crop beginning this year and have harvested it twice. I have half an acre that I have set apart for stevia cultivation and I have also given my wife half an acre too where she also planted stevia,” said an elated Moses Kung’u from Molo whose family has reaped some Sh3 million this year from the plant. Moreover, the demand for the plant is on a firm upwards path, both locally and internationally.

Estimates of global stevia sales range from $800m to $2bn a year, up from just $20m in 2008, according to a new Packaged Facts report on sugars, sugar substitutes, and sweetener trends. Global Soft drink companies like Pure Circle Limited have said stevia grown in Kenya is among the best due to the optimum weather conditions and good soils, and have expressing a large appetite for the crop. Currently, Kenya is producing about 1 tonne, against demand already of 10 tonnes a year.

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Red Royale, a high yielding, fast maturing pawpaw variety recently trialed by farmers in Eldoret has also brought strong returns and has drawn an influx of multinationals organizing with farmers where the plant does well to increase the acreage under Red Royale cultivation. Del Bon Mel (DBM), a Swedish company, has promised to invest in enticing farmers to plant more of the new pawpaw variety.  Tapsigei farmers, the group from Eldoret that trialed the pawpaw variety with a South African Company, Fizzle Fit Ltd, pocketed Sh300 for every pawpaw sold, with the local supermarkets also expressing a demand for the little that was , which they bought at Sh250 a piece. Farmers sell the traditional pawpaw at a maximum of Sh70.

As international hotels opened up local branches to meet the growing demand for local cuisines by internationals living in Kenya, this, too, opened up new pockets of demand for lucrative crops as hotels searched for local raw materials at a cheaper rate than importing from their countries. More Ethiopian and Eritrean hotels opened in Nairobi and with them came an appetite for teff, a plant grown in those countries and used as the main ingredient for the Ethiopian delicacy Injera, a flat, spongy, slightly sour bread eaten with most Ethiopian meals.

Farmers in Athi River area who got the idea of growing teff from an Eritrean friend mid this year have now gone full throttle in its cultivation.  A bag of teff sells at Sh10,000 with the farmers managing to sell over 10 bags per harvest. Teff takes three months to mature. The hoteliers say they have only managed to get half of the supply they need to sustain their hotels.

Another potential wondercrop came this year on KARI’s successful trials of a high value bean variety for the canning industry, which since 1960 has relied on the foreign Mexican 142 variety. The new varieties guarantee yields more than 50 per cent higher than conventional varieties and are the first beans developed specifically for Kenya’s canning industry. They also have more zinc and iron in them, over-riding the need for consumers to buy food supplements when they need more of these minerals. Zinc and Iron are among the minerals needed by HIV positive patients and by convalescents. The minerals boost the body’s immunity, and iron helps in the production of haemoglobin for oxygen circulation.

As the new 2011 crops promise better days for farmers, researchers and agriculturalists say that equipping farmers with information is the only way to shield them from avoidable pitfalls like oversupplies.

“TC banana started doing well in 2006 and farmers reaped the benefits of the fruit till, when prices and demand went low. The secret is for farmers to embrace these crops when not many do and look for exit strategy when more farmers come into farming the crop. There will always be new and lucrative crops unveiled thanks to our robust research institutions and our good climate, so farmers only need to keep their ears on the ground,” said Rispa Kadada, an agribusiness consultant who has worked hard to give farmers new alternatives in crops.