Nairobi — Kenyans will soon start flavouring their yoghurt, ice cream and cakes with their own locally produced vanilla. And a wave of excitement has swept through Othaya in Nyeri, where farmers are venturing into the rare farming, hitherto practised mainly in South America.

A mature vanilla plant

Rumour has it that a single vanilla tree can turn one into a millionaire, whereby a kilogramme of the beans fetches Sh7,000 in the international market.

With the current prices, when the crop flowers and is cured by next year, the majority of small-scale farmers could become millionaires.

About 460 farmers are already cultivating the crop and will soon start exporting the product.

They have planted about 5,000 trees, which are currently shooting.

Each farmer is expected to earn an average of Sh700,000 in one season, as most have planted about 10 trees each. The crop, which takes three years to mature, will be due for harvest in 2008.

The crop is mainly grown in Madagascar and Mexico while small-scale producers are Haiti, Hawaii and Australia.

Manual cross-pollination

Farmers in Nyeri, which is predominantly a coffee and tea zone, are slowly abandoning the two cash crops in favour of the labour-intensive vanilla.

A farmer, Stephen Wachira, said the price of vanilla might go higher owing to typhoons that occur every four years in Madagascar.

He said although tending the crop was taxing, farmers were ready to face the challenge. Once the plant starts shooting, it has to be kept under a shade until it flowers. During pollination, farmers have to wake up as early as 6 am to manually cross-pollinate the plants.

The special bees that do the pollination are only found in South America. As a result, local farmers will have to brace for the back-breaking process.

"We have held talks with several American firms interested in buying our crop. Once the vanilla starts flowering, we shall contact them," said Wachira.

Drought poses challenge

The farmers are planning to register a trade name, which will identify their vanilla in the global market.

However, the raging drought is proving a challenge, with some vanilla plants having wilted.

Wachira, who has over 1,000 trees, says if the rains do not fall soon, they could as well forget raking in millions from their wonder crop.

Some farmers are buying vanilla vines from Western Uganda at Sh350 per piece. Besides, the cost of cultivating it is enormous.

The Ugandans are now hesitant to sell their vines to Kenyans owing to their growing appetite.

"One has to camp in the homes of the Ugandans, moving from one farmer to another to find the one willing to sell," Wachira said.