KENYA – BEAR Machines East Africa (BMEA) has signed a Ksh 20billion (US$160M) memorandum of Understanding with the County government of Kilifi to support coconut and cashew nut farmers to transition to cocoa farming.
BEAR Machines East Africa is a determined agricultural project with plans to develop a 50,000-acre fully mechanized cocoa plantation and a cutting-edge Cocoa Processing facility in Kenya.
Gary Roy, CEO of BMEA said, “A technical team will see how many farmers can be incorporated and how much land the county can give for the model farm along the Sabaki River in Magarini Sub-County.”
Kilifi, which has been predominantly a cashew nut, cassava and coconut farming region, was suitable for cocoa due to its humid climatic condition and sandy loam soil.
The financing will be used in the introduction of high-yielding, pest and disease-resistant cocoa variety.
The agribusiness firm marketing manager, Antony Mugwanja, said the company has since conducted a feasibility study in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural Research Organization, which then paved the way for the signing of the MoU.
The project aims to produce 1.5 million metric tons of cocoa per acre per year in the first harvest before expanding.
“We are injecting a capital size of US$162 million within the next two years. We are bringing a high breed, pests, and diseases resistance variety called forastero cocoa,” said Mugwanja.
He said a nuclear farm of 100,000 acres has been established. Later, farmers trained to adopt new technology and agricultural practices would be brought on board.
“We have further assured them in the MoU that we shall purchase all the cocoa beans grown by the farmers for sustainability,” added Mugwanja.
The company projects that the first cocoa harvest would start next year given the crop takes about two and a half years to mature and “if that happens, an interim crop will give us two harvests in a year.”
In 2020, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research (KALRO) in partnership with Bear Machines of West Africa which is a private company will introduce the crop to farmers.
To support commercialization of cocoa, KALRO will supply 40,000 cocoa seedlings to Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Lamu, Busia, Bungoma, Vihiga, Kakamega, Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay and Migori counties in 2020.
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