In a small village in Narok County is a story of perseverance and roaring success of Geoffrey Rono, a tomato farmer earning up to Sh3 million per season.

Before trying his hand at tomato farming, Rono was a fodder crop farmer and supplied his produce to dairy farmers in his neighborhood.

He would later start tomato farming inspired by a friend who was growing the fruits in wooden constructed greenhouses.

“I then embarked on constructing my own, and when complete, I bought Anne F1 tomato variety seeds from Amiran Kenya Company at Sh11 per seed, using up to Sh11, 000 to buy 1000 seeds for a start,” he said.

His four homemade greenhouses measure 16 x 40 meters and are made from timber and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).

He notes that constructing the structures cost him Sh250, 000, way low compared to Sh360,000 he would have used to construct a metal greenhouse of the same size.

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Before planting his first crop, Rono conducted a soil test, and with the help of experts, he was able to fix the missing soil elements. Experts further advised him to adopt organic manure as it would work better on his soil than synthetic fertilizers.

“I am using manure in my tomato farming since I started following the advice I got from soil testing experts, and this has saved me between Sh1, 500 and Sh1,800, which I could be spending on a 50kg bag of fertilizer every planting season,” he said.

With a big chunk of his produce supplied to traders in Narok town, Rono sells a crate of tomatoes at Sh2500. From one tomato plant, the farmers earns over Sh500.

“I harvest one to six fruits per cluster of my tomato plants, giving me about 800 fruits per plant a year,” said Rono.

His four greenhouses can accommodate over 1500 seedlings each, meaning each earns him Sh750, 000 translating to Sh3 million from the four greenhouses per season.