The Failed Promise of Palm Tree Farming
The Failed Promise of Palm Tree Farming
Here is the legendary farm whose plantation is grown and harvested in two different countries in this world. It would have been just that, a legend but the local people say that it is as true as the day is to the night.
To begin with, what was grown on this farm by a team of well-funded experts and supported by the full force of the government is now just a legend. If there were any harvests out of it; then they were never put to the intended use as far as the locals can remember. What remains of the crop, nobody seems to care anymore. Perhaps it holds the unique record as the only farm in the world which has been planted by the government of one country but is being harvested by the citizens of another country. At least what remains of the crop on it. This farm is on the land of the government of Kenya but is being harvested by the citizens of Uganda.
There is a hot and burning issue in Busia County that nobody wants to talk about; yet everyone is willing to tell their story. The story of the green or white elephant that refuses to die a natural death. It consists of a large acreage of green plantations, but locals call it a white elephant. Listen to their true story as told here.
We began by asking a village elder at Angorom village why they just can’t forget about this government project and move on.
“How can I forget about it, when every day this thing is staring at me before my very eyes?” Posed the village elder. “Everywhere I look in my compound I see them, yet I cannot use them, nor can I utilize for something else the land on which they are planted. One tree’s shade covers so much space. Sometimes when I am sleeping, I dream about my wasted land. I have nightmares.”
In the Beginning
In the beginning, the government through the research station of KALRO enticed farmers to participate in the project aimed at making Kenya self-sufficient in palm oil for industrial manufacturing use. Kenya was importing and still imports all its palm oil requirements from East Asia and West Africa. It was determined that the climate in Busia County and several other areas of Western Kenya is conducive to the growth of palm trees, hence the production of sufficient quantities of palm oil both for local consumption and even export market.
The 1980s
Intensive and extensive capacity building was undertaken for the local populace. They were taught that palm trees mature in only 4-5 years and have many benefits. Palm oil can be used to make cooking oil, soap, margarine and a variety of other products. Not only that, the palm tree has a good shade, can be harvested for firewood as well. Its fibres are used to make cottage industry products such as brooms. Some local residents played it a safe wait-and-see attitude, but many embraced the project. When the government says something is good; it must be good. Government is never wrong. That is the positive attitude of rural folks in Kenya. They took the Palm tree seedlings and planted them in their farms and homesteads.
In the early 1990s, the area received some more Palm Tree seedlings from Ghana; together with experts. The farmers were given further training. Not long after another group of experts landed from Egypt to train farmers on how oil is extracted from the palm fruits. They used a manual oil extracting machine. The Egyptians promised the locals that once they attained a plantation of one million palm trees, they (Egyptians) will come and establish a Palm oil refinery. That is the message the locals understood. More of them planted the seedlings.
The Long Wait
Then began the long wait for the palm oil refinery site. The hopeful locals never lost hope. But the Ghanaians never returned with their promised further training and inspections. Nor did the Egyptians return loaded with factory machinery. Only the stored manual oil extractor still reminds residents of their long-gone forage into Busia County. However, when the locals realized that some of the main architects of the project were retiring of age; the truth dawned on them. The project was elephantic; it was going nowhere anymore. That was 20-30 years down the line.
Desperate locals started their own innovative ways to use the fruits. Some would roast the dry palm nuts and eat them. But that is not what they were meant to be, so it was not profitable.
We met Pascal, a young man bodaboda motorcycle taxi operator who carried us to Adungosi town. He says locals pound the nuts in the local wood-pounding mill called Kinu. They extract a little oil for domestic use and for selling to other households. He tells us that the palm tree has herbal medicinal uses. But again is this what the project was intended to achieve?
The economic use for it to benefit the local population seems to have gone with the breath of the wind of experts.
The Want and Waste
The village elder at Angorom village had this to say: "We were taught to plant these trees ten by ten metres apart, so you can see how much land a few trees now waste. If it was meant mainly for firewood use, then the local tree varieties have more branches that can produce more firewood than these palm trees. Even their shade is not so good. What puzzles us is that nobody from the government is telling us what to do with these green elephants. Even if it is cutting them down to reclaim our land."
The Palm tree farm is found at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) whose land are acres and acres of palm trees as far as the eye can see towards Kenya’s border with Uganda.
One long-serving employee we spoke to said that at one time, the research centre had over one million palm tree seedlings which is distributed free of charge to farmers in Busia and other areas. But as the farmers became disillusioned with the lack of progress on the building of the factory, they stopped taking the seedlings.
How about the research station palm farm? Gone are the days when the huge palm tree farm was weeded and tended to with meticulous care. Nothing is happening from this side of the border, he said and avoided elaborating.
On the bodaboda ride to Adungosi, I posed the query to my taxi rider Pascal.
“Oh, that is a dangerous place; a home of snakes and animals. You go there at your own risk. The funny thing is you can’t enter the palm farm from this side, because it is guarded government land. But as you can see over that horizon, the palm trees plantations border our neighbours. So youth from Uganda sneak in and harvest the pods. They pound into oil and sell it to locals in their country and here.
We asked a lady fruit seller in Busia town what she thought of the Palm trees scattered around her county. She had the following response: "Oh those makindu-like trees? When I was growing up, I found them here. So you say they are new? New in which way? Well if the government brought them, then it is ok, but if I get my own land I won’t plant them." Why? "Well, I guess because it is hopeless if the government is no longer planting them."