The first time Ruth Kabiru noticed freshly dug potatoes being placed in sacks by farmers and set aside, she wondered why the tubers were not being used for food.
She had begun working for a potato cooperative in Nakuru county, one of Kenya’s biggest potato-growing regions, after a career in the corporate world failed to materialise.
It turned out that the farmers were using the chosen tubers to seed their fields for the next harvest. With a fast-growing population relying on the crop for both food and income, Kabiru considered the farming practice a huge waste of potential nutrition.
The 28-year-old decided there had to be a better way to plant potatoes.
Today, Kabiru produces and uses certified potato seeds, with the aim of helping farmers access better-quality planting material.
Kabiru is the founder and director of Crop Care AgriHub. She focuses on climate-smart agriculture, producing and selling certified potato seeds, training aspiring farmers on their use and assisting growers who want to start seed potato production.
“When we encourage farmers to use certified seeds, it’s because these seeds have a very good impact when it comes to harvesting,” she said.
Potato is the second-most important staple crop in Kenya after maize, supporting food security and providing livelihoods for millions in the country’s value chain.
According to the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, production of potato grew significantly between 2018 and 2023.
Despite growing up in Dundori, an agricultural region and one of Kenya’s key food baskets, Kabiru never pictured herself growing potatoes. She enrolled at Maseno University in 2016 and pursued a Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance option, as well as the Certified Public Accountants qualification.
Like many in the same position, the young graduate envisioned herself working for a corporation in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. As such, when she started looking for an internship position in 2020, she focused on getting a position in Nairobi’s corporate sectors.
However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many organisations stopped taking on interns.
“Everybody was saying, ‘We’re working from home. We’re not taking on interns right now’.”
Frustrated, she went back to school and told a friend, “I’m not sure I’ll graduate because I can’t find anywhere to do my attachment,” Kabiru said.
PROBLEM SOLVED
A close friend suggested she look for an opportunity at a potato producers’ cooperative in Kuresoi, another agriculturally rich region in Nakuru county.
Kabiru approached the cooperative and was offered the internship position. Although she intended to spend most of her time doing financial work at the office, Kabiru soon found herself in the field.
She was one of the cooperative’s younger members and would often be assigned to accompany visitors to farms, participate in field activities and attend farmer training classes. The work progressively introduced her to agricultural practice and the issues facing potato growers.
A training programme offered another route. Kabiru was recruited as a trainer through the cooperative. During her time as a trainer, she taught farmers about potato production before convincing them to become cooperative members.
“Going to the field and interacting with farmers really was good for me,” she said.
Her interactions with farmers introduced her to the problem that would eventually become her business: access to high-quality and certified potato seed.
After spending time with farmers, Kabiru decided to try farming as well. Instead of buying land, she leased one acre and obtained seed for her first crop through connections she had established with the farmers she interacted with as an intern.
“That one acre would perform really, really well. I think I made more than 350K in revenue, so that was good footing.”
The experience convinced her that farming could be a business and provided her a better understanding of how seed influences what farmers get out of their land.
Many farmers continue to recycle seeds by storing potatoes from one harvest for the next season. Certified seed, on the other hand, is produced and examined in accordance with particular requirements, although the increased cost may make adoption difficult.
As per Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, the use of certified seed is critical in improving yields by 30 to 50 per cent and in controlling diseases.
However, despite such a significant improvement in yield, Kephis asserts that certified seed production in Kenya currently meets less than 5 per cent of national demand due to limited seed multipliers and high production costs.
“Potato seed business is quite capital-intensive, seriously, because you also have to pay for inspections from the government,” Kabiru says.
INFORMATION POWER
The challenge extends beyond Kenya. According to the International Potato Centre, in sub-Saharan Africa, 90 per cent of smallholder farmers access seeds from informal systems mainly from earlier harvests or local markets.
Daniel Kamithi is the founder of Nakuru Potato Cooperative Union, an umbrella of 13 potato cooperatives in Nakuru county.
Kamithi, also a potato farmer from Kamara ward, has been farming since 1982. He has seen improvements in potato cultivation, such as the introduction of certified seed in 2012.
“Certified seeds are standard seeds that have been studied. How to preserve them, how they work and management of these seeds, for example, [to protect them] from insects, is well taught to farmers,” Kamithi says. “In today’s world, you cannot just plant for the sake of planting.”
For Kamithi, potato farmers not only need to get access to quality potato seeds but also to join fellow farmers in saccos where they get easy access to the latest information in the potato production world.
Kabiru says less than 10 per cent of Kenyan farmers use certified seed, with many still recycling seeds from previous harvests.
“But now, when it comes to harvest, the difference is like night and day,” she says.
“Too big because one certified seed is free of diseases. They’re very resilient because all the seeds you have seen here have Kephis labels.”
Producing certified seed requires inspections, land, machinery and adherence to production regulations. A crop may be rejected if it fails inspection, leaving a producer with incurred costs.
“So for you to be a seed merchant in Kenya, you have to be registered with Kephis. So it tells you the tubers I work with have already been taken to the lab and tested for diseases.”
LESSONS LEARNED
Kabiru considered working as a grower under an established merchant instead of establishing herself as a seed merchant. However, her goal was much bigger: to provide farmers with certified seed, while also enabling other small-scale growers to engage in seed production.
Waweru Karaithi, a farmer since 2012, has been buying certified potato seeds from Kabiru for the past three years. He has observed variations in harvested quantity between recycled and certified seed during his potato-producing experience.
“I have learnt that recycled potato seeds end up losing their quality, and the quantity of production is also low compared to certified seeds,” he says. A 50kg bag of certified potato seed can produce up to five to seven 90-kilogram bags of potatoes on his farm, he says.
Working with farmers has also made Kabiru realise the importance of women in agricultural decision-making. Many of the farmers she trains and sells to are women, despite the fact that men continue to have authority over land and capital.
“You will see in training, 80% will be women, not men,” she says. “But if you look at the farm, the title deeds are held by men.”
Apart from face-to-face training, Kabiru has expanded her reach to farmers through social media. Some buyers contact her after seeing her work on social media platforms where they inquire about seed, fertilizer, and farming procedures before making their first purchase.
“Occasionally I post testimonials from farmers. You know, if somebody comes and gets seed from me and then they make a million that season. For me, I’m good. They are able to pay their school fees. They’re able to pay for their livelihoods, and they also have enough money to come back here.”
Kabiru has also noticed younger people becoming interested in agriculture.
“I’ve seen a rise of Gen Zs and Gen Alphas really wanting to get into farming,” she says.
Kabiru is confident that there is a chance for young people who would like to venture in certified seed potato production. If more people were to engage in the activity, Kenya would have enough certified seeds to boost its potato output as well as export to neighbouring countries.
Her sentiments are echoed by a 2026 study by the European Potato Journal, which claims that Kenya’s average yield of a potato crop is currently below 10 tonnes per hectare per year, against a potential of 35-40 tonnes per hectare.
Beyond Kenya, potato farming is notably important. According to the most recent FAOSTAT data, Africa produced about 34.2 million tonnes of potatoes in 2024, or about 9 per cent of the world’s total. Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa are among the nations where production is concentrated.
Quality seed potato goes beyond the farm, seeing that Kabiru is getting opportunities headlined by her efforts.
One such opportunity is the sponsorship she received to attend the World Potato Congress, which will take place in Kenya in October 2026.
For Kabiru, the World Potato Congress is an important event. Not only is the global event being held for the first time in sub-Sahara Africa, but also it’s a chance to meet growers, researchers, policymakers, business leaders, investors and youth from more than 60 nations.
She believes that the congress will allow her to showcase the efforts of Kenyan potato farmers and establish connections with global potato industry stakeholders.
“The significance is that it’s bringing all stakeholders in the potato industry globally and in Kenya. So it’s a good opportunity for the world to see what Kenyan potato farmers are doing, because we’ll be showcasing what we do in our farms.”
Kabiru believes that providing farmers with trustworthy information and legitimate sources is essential to increasing potato production. Her work now lies between farming and planting material supply, providing producers with high-quality seed and paving the way for other small-scale farmers to produce their own seeds.
