From cabbages to premium strawberries: A woman's success story

When Ann Wanjugu’s husband died in 2021, she had no choice but to find an income-generating project that would provide enough to raise and educate their two children.

Before her husband died, she had started selling curtains in the neighbouring town of Nyahururu, but this did not earn her much due to high competition.

“After the funeral, I sat down and thought about what to do, as I knew life would be difficult now that the main breadwinner was gone,” she said. “Before he died, he had bought a piece of land where he grew cabbages, cowpeas and a few strawberries. I decided to expand it,” recalls Ms Wanjugu.

For the 31-year-old, the decision was not an easy one. Losing a spouse meant losing not only a partner, but also an important source of financial support for the family. She suddenly had to shoulder the responsibility of providing for her two children, paying their school fees, and ensuring they had food and other necessities.

On their farm in Ol Joro Orok in Nyandarua County, her husband had grown cabbages, cowpeas and strawberries.

Ms Wanjugu chose to focus on cabbages and cowpeas, but after two years she abandoned them as they gave her little return.

However, the small strawberry crop that her husband had planted on their farm offered her a glimmer of hope.

Rather than abandoning the farm or continuing with activities that yielded little return, Ms Wanjugu decided to focus on the strawberries.

She gradually shifted her focus from cabbage and cowpea farming to strawberries, convinced that they had greater potential to provide a reliable income. Her experience in the curtain business had taught her an important lesson: having a business was not enough if the returns were too low.

The market in Nyahururu town was already crowded, making it difficult for her to compete with established traders. Farming, on the other hand, offered her the chance to make use of the land her husband had left behind while generating an income close to home.

“I realised that I had land that I could make better use of, rather than spending money travelling to town to look for customers. Cabbages and cowpeas, however, gave me very little profit, which could not sustain my family’s needs,” she says.

Determined to succeed, Ms Wanjugu began expanding the strawberry section of the farm. What had initially been a small plot planted by her husband slowly became the centre of her agricultural enterprise.

Through the internet and YouTube videos, she learnt how to care for the crop, from preparing the land and planting to watering, weeding, and controlling pests and diseases. She also became more attentive to the quality of the fruit, knowing that good produce would attract better customers and generate repeat custom.

What started as less than an eighth of an acre of land under strawberries has now grown to six acres of both Sandra and San Andreas species, cultivated by the fructiculturist on the western side of the Aberdare Ranges.

The San Andreas variety is everbearing, producing large, glossy, firm berries with a sweet flavour.

In contrast, Sandra is an Italian variety that produces bright red, elongated, conical fruit which is known for its low acidity, high sugar content and sweet flavour. The robust plant grows well in both open fields and protected tunnels.

All her crops are grown on raised seedbeds in open ground. The beds are covered with dry grass, which acts as mulch and helps to keep the fruit clean.

“This area is relatively flat and experiences frequent flooding. The raised beds protect the crop from being destroyed by floodwaters,” she notes.

Since strawberries require a lot of water, she has the added advantage of the nearby Lake Ol' Bolossat, from which she pumps water to irrigate her crop using a Rain Hose irrigation system.

Unlike cabbage, which takes up a lot of space and sometimes fetches poor prices when the market is flooded, strawberries give her the advantage of a longer harvesting period. There is also a ready market for the crop among consumers looking for fresh fruit.

As her production increased, so did her confidence.

Ms Wanjugu started selling the strawberries to local customers. News of the quality of her produce spread, and she began receiving orders from further afield. Gradually, her market expanded to reach customers in Uganda.

Selling to Uganda was an important milestone in her farming journey. Selling to Uganda not only opened up new opportunities for her produce, but also demonstrated that a smallholder farmer could expand beyond the local market by focusing on quality and consistency.

The berries are hand-picked in the field by her 22 workers before being taken to a shed where they are sorted and packed into ventilated plastic clamshells and punnets ready for sale.

She harvests more than 700 punnets daily, 300 of which are exported to Uganda, while the rest are sold in Nairobi, Mombasa, and other towns in Kenya. Wholesale, a punnet sells for Sh100, but those buying in smaller quantities pay Sh150 per punnet. However, the price for those exported to Uganda is different due to additional expenses.

Here, a punnet costs 170 Kenyan shillings.

As well as earning money from selling the strawberries, she sells the fruit splits, which are the seeds of this crop.

The price of the strawberry splits also depends on the type of strawberry one wants. She sells San Andreas splits, an ever-bearing variety that produces large, glossy, firm berries with a sweet flavour, for Sh100, while Sandra's go for Sh50 per split.

She also earns money by charging farmers a fee to visit her farm and learn how to grow strawberries.

“I normally charge Sh1,000 per person, or Sh3,500 for a group of seven. For groups of more than seven, I am open to negotiation,” she says, smiling.

Visitors flock to her farm throughout the week, except on Sundays, which she has dedicated to going to church and spending time with her family.

For Ms Wanjugu, the farm has therefore become more than just a source of income. It is a symbol of resilience and a reminder that difficult circumstances can create opportunities for reinvention.

She admits that farming has not been without challenges. Producing strawberries requires careful management as the crop is delicate and needs regular attention.

Farmers must also contend with changing weather conditions, pests, diseases, and market price fluctuations.

She says, 'Flooding and snails are my biggest challenges. However, by interacting with fellow strawberry farmers from various parts of the country, I learnt a technique for dealing with them. I frequently spray coffee on the beds, which surprisingly keeps the snails away.”

She went on to say that transportation and accessing profitable markets can also be challenging, particularly for a small-scale farmer.

“Strawberries are highly perishable, so they must be harvested, handled and transported carefully to reach consumers while still fresh,” she says.

Despite these difficulties, Ms Wanjugu has remained committed to the enterprise because of the difference it has made to her household finances.

The income from the farm has helped her to cover family expenses and, most importantly, to support her two children through education.

For a widow who was uncertain how she would survive after her husband's death, the farm has provided financial independence.

Her story also reflects the evolving role of women in agriculture. Rather than viewing the land simply as an inheritance or a means of subsistence, she has transformed it into a commercial enterprise.

In hindsight, she says that abandoning the struggling curtain business and focusing more on cabbage and cowpea farming was one of the most important choices she has ever made.

'I had to choose something that could give me better returns and allow me to take care of my children,' she says.

The strawberries have since become her 'green gold', generating income from local customers and buyers across the border alike.

Ms Wanjugu now hopes to increase production on her 14-acre plot of land and access more markets. She believes that increased access to quality planting materials, modern farming knowledge, and better markets could make strawberry farming even more profitable.

She is not simply aiming to increase the size of her farm, but to build an enterprise capable of sustaining her family for years to come.

Her journey from selling curtains in Nyahururu and growing cabbages and cowpeas to supplying strawberries locally and in Uganda has been shaped by loss, necessity, and determination. Yet it is also a story of courage.

Today, every strawberry harvested from her farm represents more than just a sale. It symbolises a mother’s determination to move her family forward, a widow’s resilience in the face of adversity, and the potential of agriculture when farmers embrace enterprises with stronger markets.

For this mother of two, what began as a desperate search for survival has grown into a promising farming venture.

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