A specific reddish kind of potato known as UNICA is grown on Esther Murugi’s half-acre plot of land in Laikipia County, Kenya, among the many varieties grown worldwide. Currently cultivated by potato growers worldwide, UNICA is named for the University of Ica in southern Peru, where it was first introduced in the 1990s.

One of the locations is Esther’s farmland. She strolls about her farm and excavates some dirt around a UNICA potato in a field dotted with purple blossoms.

Only three months have passed, but the tubers are large enough to harvest, Esther says happily. She had plenty left over from her previous harvest, so this wasn’t even her first harvest. Her family won’t have to worry about running out of food till the next harvest. This wasn’t always the case, though.

“Before the introduction of this variety, potato farming, which is our mainstay, had declined, not that we were not planting. We were planting but the harvest was very little – few small tubers. Now you can see the results by yourself,” Esther explained.

In addition to being a staple crop, potatoes provide many Laikipia farmers with a living. The climate in this area is typically arid to semi-arid, with little precipitation. The potato crop’s short seasonality and poor seed quality presented farmers with ongoing difficulties. As a result, illnesses and pests continued to exist and low-quality potato seeds were recycled to grow the crop. These issues were even worse when the areas experienced droughts.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN) implemented a climate-smart project in 2020 with funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to assist women farmers in adapting to the changing climate and increasing their crop yields.

Laikipia, Kitui, and West Pokot were the three counties where the Women Economic Empowerment through Climate-Smart Agriculture (WEE-CSA) initiative was implemented. The UNICA potato variety was introduced as one of the many value chain enhancements that the project encouraged.

This particular variety was created by the International Potato Center using conventional crossbreeding methods, and it was tested in several areas to make sure it could withstand drought and heat. UNICA has the natural capacity to withstand heat and water stress, can be grown in both lowland and highland environments, and matures early (three months). Because of its distinctiveness, it is also immune to several viral illnesses and the late blight fungus, which are prevalent in Laikipia.

“We chose the UNICA potato variety based on the local needs of the farmers, the environmental conditions, and in answering to the project goals of building the resilience of potato farmers to climate change using climate-smart techniques. The results are quite impactful,” Barrack Okoba, the FAO WEE-CSA project manager, mentioned.

Training Spring Impactful Results

The WEE-CSA project provided women farmers in Laikipia with training on how to grow the UNICA potato variety, handle the post-harvest process, as well as find ways to sell their products to the local markets.

Esther is a member of the Ngenia People with Disabilities Self-Help Group. She, along with her group, was selected to partake in these training sessions where they learned propagation and production techniques for the UNICA potatoes. The project primarily aimed to reach people with disabilities who sometimes get overlooked for training but who are a crucial part of the farming community in Laikipia.

When asked about her training, Esther responds: “We have been potato farmers over the years, but it is the first time we are doing it using apical cuttings which we were given through the WEE-CSA project. They are far better and give us potatoes that fetch better profits and leave us with a lot for our family consumption.” This is because an apical cutting uses tissue culture plants that yields high-quality seeds.

In addition, because of these training, Esther shares that she no longer uses chemicals to fight the potato late blight disease, as she had with traditional potato varieties because UNICA is naturally resistant to it. Another aspect of the project included training on financial literacy and as a result, Esther’s group has so far been able to grow their savings to KSH500,000 (USD4,000) through their village saving and lending scheme – an informal banking system for farming businesses.

With the significant increase in their harvest, a business opportunity also arose in the forms of crisps,
bajia (fritter), and chips. Esther’s group packages these potato snacks and distributes them through the local markets for additional income. Going forward, they wish to expand their products to other towns and cities.

At the closure field exhibition, the WEE-CSA project also connected Esther’s group with a local company that specializes in the processing of potatoes and works in collaboration with the Potato Council of Kenya. By promoting partnerships between women potato farmers and local potato businesses, they can increasingly work together to meet the demands in other local markets, ensuring the livelihoods of women farmers and the continuation of sustainable potato production.