From One Crate of Tomatoes to Three

Esther owns a 2 acre piece of land in Uasin Gishu County. She has been a farmer for the past 9 years. Apart from growing tomatoes, maize, beans and vegetables she also keeps dairy cows. Esther supports her family through arable farming. She plants crops on one acre and spares the other acre for dairy farming. Although Esther knew very little about her soil, she could tell something was amiss. Her crops were not doing well. SoilCares in conjunction with Heifer International offered trainings to Tarakwo Dairy Cooperative and she decided to test her soil in the green house where she plants tomatoes.

After receiving the report Esther applied all recommended inputs. Her green-house has now doubled in production. Initially Esther could harvest half a crate of tomatoes in one week, but after applying the recommendation Esther harvested 3 full crates of tomatoes from the same green house. “My tomatoes used to be weak and small in size”. The tomatoes increased in size and looked healthier, Esther used to sell a crate for 800 Kshs but after testing her soil she sold the same crate at 1500 Kshs.

Esther: “The only challenge I experienced was cost for carrying out a soil analysis’’. This problem is now solved by the affordable test of the SoilCares hand held scanner.

Esther used the profits to pay school fees for her kids and opened a shop by the road side, where she sells household items.

Her future plans is to increase from one greenhouse to five.

“Soilcares has educated me, I now know the status of my soil and I will continue to test my soil”.

Esther cleared her greenhouse and currently she is growing vegetables.

The story first appeared on Soilscare one of AECF’s investee