For this, he has four acres under the crop which is harvested after 60 days, giving 20 tonnes per acre. His latest introduction to the farm is a high-yielding variety of sorghum known as Sugar graze sorghum which he says is highly nutritious. He says a kilo of this goes for Sh20.Īpart from Brachiaria that was introduced to him by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2014, Malika also grows other varieties of grass such as Boma Rhodes and Napier grass. When The Smart Harvest visited his farm, Malika had sold 500 bales of Brachiaria type of grass two days earlier. “We have a steady market, from within and outside our county in the Coast, Central Kenya and elsewhere,” says the farmer. Much of the grass is stored in bales, some weighing up to 100kgs and which are readily sold to customers who come to pick from the home. It is here, where for over three decades Malika has built a grass empire that has earned him a fortune while providing the much-needed feeds to local dairy farmers and even those from outside the county.
Nearby, a hand-operated baler and a tractor operated one lie next to each other.Īnd a walk into his expansive 50-acre farm gives one the impression that Malika, 83, is the undisputed grass kingpin of Ukambani. When you walk to the home of Jonah Malika within Mukuyuni area of Makueni County, a giant grass store greets you. He has 10 acres under the grass variety while the surplus is sold to other farmers. Jonah Malika at his nursery where he grows seedlings for Brachiaria type of grass in Mukuyuni area of Makueni county.