3 days ago
6
Gilbert Korir, the farm Manager at the Kaptepeswet Farm, displays healthy leaves from tea bushes grown using organic farm inputs. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPSKERICHO, Kenya, Mar 27 (IPS) - On the outskirts of Kericho town within Kenya’s Rift Valley region, Kaptepeswet tea farm, an organic tea estate sprawling on a 50-acre piece of land, is a testament that organic fertilizers can be used on mature tea bushes and still produce the desired quantity and quality of premium leaves.
“We have always used the NPK fertilizers on our tea estate, but for the past three years, we have started trials with organic fertilizers and soil conditioners deliberately to convert our tea into an organic product to serve the constantly growing global demand for organic tea,” said Gilbert Korir, the farm Manager at the Kaptepeswet Farm.
According to the Data Bridge Market Research, the global organic tea market size was valued at USD 1.70 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 2.83 billion by 2031, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 6.60 percent during the forecast period of 2024 to 2031. This exponential growth is driven by increasing consumer awareness of health and environmental issues related to organic farming.
The NPK is an important synthetic fertilizer that contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, largely used in Kenya on different crops, including tea estates, to replenish nutrients lost through harvesting and sometimes leaching.
However, different studies have shown that the process of manufacturing such synthetic fertilizers emits so much greenhouse gases, and that excessive or long-term use of the same can significantly raise soil acidity levels, create macronutrient saturation, or change it to the point where the soil loses sensitivity and absorbency to various nutrients.
According to Korir, the shift to organic farm inputs is also in line with the global shift towards environmentally safe and economically viable alternatives for good production.
“The only setback is that unlike synthetic fertilizers, which deliver high yields promptly, organic inputs take a longer time for the crop to respond, and the beauty is that they keep the soil nourished for a longer period,” he said.
Dr. George Oduor, a Kenya-based soil health scientist, explains that fertilizers derived from organic sources stimulate important soil microorganisms to provide nutrients for the crop and also improve the structure of the soil.
On the contrary, synthetic fertilizers are water-soluble, and they avail nutrients directly to the plants without necessarily replenishing the soil; hence, the farmer must reapply the fertilizers regularly to keep the crops healthy.
“It may take a longer period to see the results of organic fertilizers, but once the nutrients are available, it will take a longer time in the soil, and the plants will continue benefiting from season to season,” said Oduor.
Moses Oburu, the General Manager at Vermipro Limited, a Uganda-based organic fertilizer-producing company, says that organic fertilizers used on a large scale are made through a process known as vermicomposting, where organic materials from plants, animal manure, and food waste are fed to earthworms, which in turn excrete nutrient-rich castings, which are the main raw material for making different liquid fertilizers and soil conditioners.
The vermi liquid is then cultured in order to isolate particular microbes (bacteria) that are needed for a particular purpose; thereafter, it is taken to the concentration stage where the selected microbes are grown through medium and non-chlorinated water before they are stabilized using non-sulfur molasses to give it a longer shelf life.
Studies have shown that such fertilizers aid in the fixation of soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. “In many cases, most of these nutrients are always in the soil, but in forms that cannot make them available for the plant,” said Oburu. “So our final products help regenerate such nutrients and make them available to the plant,” he said.
Besides, there are other non-liquid organic fertilizers that can be used on large-scale farming, including ‘bokashi,’ which is made through fermentation of organic matter, and ‘biochar,’ which is a nutrient-rich soil amendment that improves soil fertility and crop yields. Others include compost manure, farmyard manure, and green manure, among many others.
Oburu says that the demand for organic farm inputs has been on the rise, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. “Last year, we had orders from about 15,000 farmers from Uganda, and we also have several orders from Kenya by farmers who also use the inputs on horticultural crops, legumes, rice, maize, and even Napier grass,” said Oburu.
So far, the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Organisation (KALRO), in collaboration with Ernestea Limited (a private tea processing company in Kericho), are contacting an experiment on the Kaptepeswet farm to assess the impact of organic fertilisers on tea estates through a study titled ‘Evaluation of bio-fertiliser products for optimising productivity of mature tea in Kenya.’
Kenya is rated as the third biggest tea producer in the world, delivering over 430,000 tons of tea leaves to the local and international market.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Follow IPS News UN Bureau on Instagram
© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
