Ambwere Farm Harvest Report

Once again we thank God for Ambwere Sustainability Farm’s second season, which began with planting in March, 2024, and finalized with harvesting in November.

This was another season where we again focused on planting commercial maize on the 800 acres of arable land. For this season, we started harvesting on 7 October 2024, which allowed us to carry out harvesting while the maize had a low moisture percentage—unlike last season where we started harvesting a month early, when the moisture content was quite high.

We used one combine harvester for this harvesting season and took six weeks to complete harvesting. With less machinery, we were able to do good monitoring and reduce the wastage that we experienced in season one. As part of the harvesting phase, we also utilized human labor to aid in collection of the leftover maize on the farm. This was really ideal so as to maximize our output for season two.

The biggest challenge we had was inadequate security, since we did not employ the services of the Kenya Police Reservists like we did last season. This was because of their disarmament by the government following cases of gun violence within the region. However, we were fortunate to utilize the services of the Kenya Administration Police, who were provided to us by the police service.

This 2024 season we realized an output of 12,600 bags of wet maize, out of which forty bags were left at the farm to help with food for the next season, and the rest transported to the silos for drying and storage. Last season, we realized 15,000 bags post-harvest, but lost a good number of bags as a result of moisture loss and broken maize. This season we have reduced the moisture loss by more than 30% and controlled the harvesting, which saved us having broken maize. We realized that machinery had contributed to a good amount of the broken maize percentage last season.

Our produce is for the commercial market, and currently we have started the sale of maize to two millers. One miller is Isinya Feeds, which manufactures chicken feeds. The other is Pembe Maize Millers, who produce sifted maize flour. Both buyers are based in Nairobi.

The selling market price stands at Ksh. 3,700 ($28.57) per bag of 90.5 kgs (3.6 bushels) being the farm gate price or the ex silo price. Unlike last season, the buyers are incurring the logistics and transportation costs, saving us on any additional costs this season. These prices remain flexible with the market projections for the week and we may have higher prices as we continue with the sale of the 2024 maize.

We committed to release maize early after harvesting to take advantage of the current prices. This will also allow us to have enough cash flow to start our 2025 season. We have learned many things that we applied during this second year on the farm and we are very thankful for the bounty of the harvest.  

—B Emonse Muhindi
Operations Manager
FUM Africa Ministry Office

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