Papaya Farming In Kenya the Easy Profitable Way:
Anyone who as an interest in payaya farming always has this question:
“Can I make money growing pawpaw in Kenya?”
The answer is yes!
I wish you could see me as I was answering this question.
“Full of joy, I jumped out of my chair.”
I felt my blood boil and my body temperature rise, and my heart beat faster.
Why?
Because growing papaya in Kenya is a project of unbelievable returns–especially for people in the dry areas of Kenya!
so if you have a chunk of land, in the drier areas, and you do not know what to grow on it…
Don’t let that piece of land stay idle, while it could be generating income.
Just grow Papaya…
and you could mint unimaginable amounts of cash.
Wait a minute…
“Are you saying that, I can grow pawpaw on my dry piece of land, and make a living out of it?”
You may ask.
The answer is Yes.
Farmers in other parts of the world are doing it.
They are growing papaya on land that many consider dry and inappropriate for farming.
As they do so, they are collecting tons of cash–with ease–just by growing and exporting papaya.
So if you’ve ever thought of growing a suitable crop on that piece of land, Pawpaw’s could be it.
Why Growing Papaya In Kenya Makes Business Sense!
To make you see the clear picture how papaya makes money, I am presenting the data in a tabular form below:
| Number of seedlings you need per acre of papaya/pawpaw | 1,000 |
| Time Required for seedling to mature and start giving fruit | 12 Months |
| Number of fruits every tree can give in its lifetime | 400 |
| Number of Fruits you can harvest continuously from a papaya tree every week for 3-4 years | 3 |
| Number of fruits you can get from an acre of papaya trees every week | 3,000 |
| Cost per papaya fruit at the farm gate | KSH 10 |
| Gross Turnover per acre per week if you sell fruit for Ksh 10 | Ksh 30,000 |
| Gross Turnover per year of 52 weeks | Ksh 1,560,000 |
| Yearly maintainance costs of 1 acre (This can be reduced even further) | Ksh 300,000 |
| Net profit Before taxes | Ksh 1,260,000 |
You’ve Said Papaya Grows Best In The Dry Hot areas of Kenya– How do I Irrigate the Papaya Trees For maximum Profit?
Don’t Worry About Irrigation Water.
Papaya Needs Little Water to Survive and Produce Throughout The Year 
You and I know that water availability is a major concern in dry areas.
However, that worry should not prevent you from growing papaya.
With proper planning, you can collect sufficient amounts of water for growing papayas.
Furthermore, Papaya’s are known as the ‘camels’ of the plant fruit kingdom.
They’ve been given this name because they are highly adapted to surviving with very little amounts of water.
For example:
- The tree has a SPECIAL hollow trunk that helps it conserve water, thus fight drought,
- Pawpaw leaves produce a waxy layer that helps transpire very little water even in intense tropical sun,
- Dry weather is what triggers papaya to produce flowers and fruit,
- Cases of flower drop in papaya because of lack of water are unheard.
The above are some of the few qualities that make papaya a SAFE BET for for growing dry areas.
Grow them today…
and you will be surprised of the LOTS of juicy fruits you’ll produce, and the amount of cash you’ll earn.
Ready to grow pawpaw?
To make sure you succeed in growing papaya, I wrote this blog post.
It outlines SOME issues about growing papaya.
and here below is a table of contents to those issues.
To get to any of them, Just click on any of the links to jump straight to it:
Papaya Varieties In the World
- Kapaho solo (also known as puna solo)
- Waimanolo
- Higgins
- Wilder
- Hortus gold
- Honey gold
- Bettina
- Improved peterson
- Sunnybank
- Guinea gold
- Coorg honeydew
- Washington
Ideas On How To Collect Water For Growing Papaya
By now, you and I know that papaya is highly resistant to dry weather and drought.
That however, does not mean that you let the papaya trees grow without an assured source of water.
You need to invest in having a source of water that is reliable.
Why?
By doing so, you remove guesswork out of farming.
That’s not all.
With water, you can time your production, unlike relying on the rain which can fail to come at the required time.
That said, still there remains one question:
How do you get enough water for your papaya?
The solution to this is, “To harvest enough water during the rainy season.”
“But my area doesn’t receive enough water in the first place.”
Well, even the little rain that falls in your area is sufficient to irrigate your farm.
All you need to get the water is to have a good rain water harvesting stragegy.
So the strategy I am recommending has two aspects:
- Rain Water collection
- Water storage
- Water Delivery
Watch the video below to get ideas on how to collect rain water
Ideas on How to Store the Water You’ve collected For Growing Papaya
Watch the video below on how you can construct a cheap high capacity water storage resevouir.
Delivery of Water To the Papaya
Most preferable method is drip irrigation.
Watch the video below for more details
How to Grow Papayas From Seeds
It is easy to grow the ordinary papaya tree from seed.
Wash the seeds from a ripe papaya.
Squeeze the seeds from the jelly bag that covers each seed.
The seeds will only grow if you remove the bag.
Dry them in a shady place.
Once the seeds have dried, store them in a tightly closed container and keep them until you are ready to plant them.
Once you are ready, sow the seed in a seedling tray, pot or nursery.
Do not put any compost or manure into the holes.
Water the seeds you’ve planted regularly until they germinate.
Trim the tap roots to ensure they become female plants.
For more info, watch the video below the subheading.
How to Guarantee That Your Papaya plants Will be Female
Papaya farmers are often unable to know whether the seeds they have selected are going to produce female plants.
Fortunately, there is a way to guarantee the seedlings will be female, and we will get to it below.
“Why is it important to select seeds that will produce female plants?” You may ask.
Papaya female plants produce:
- Bigger fruit
- tasty fruits
- and More fruit.
That’s Why it makes sense to grow more female pawpaw plants than males.
Steps: How to get female papaya seeds
- Cut the pawpaw fruit into 2 halves, the top half and bottom half.
- Discard the seeds from the top half, and only use the seeds from the bottom half of the fruit.
- Grow the seeds from the bottom half.
- Once the seeds germinate and are about 15 cm tall, uproot them, then trim their taproot as shown in the video below.
- Once that is done, replant the seedling in a pot/plastic sleeve until it recovers.
- After the plant recovers, transplant it to the field.
How Long Does a Papaya Take To Grow
If you live in a warm region, A papaya plant will mature in six to nine months.
However, it may take up to 11 months to mature in cooler areas.
Once the plant is mature, it will flower in early spring and can produce as many as 100 fruits in summer or fall.
Papaya Planting Spacing
The correct papaya spacing is 2 Meters X 2.5 Meters
The recommended spacing helps each papaya plant grow to its ideal size.
It also maximizes the benefit of the cross-pollination process.
Some papaya cultivars are self-pollinating.
Others are cross-pollinated; both insects and wind patterns move pollen between flowers of different papaya plants.
Although not all of your papaya plants will bear fruit, keeping a healthy spacing between plants helps you have one successfully pollinated shrub.
How To Grow Papaya In a Pot
Take a pot with sufficient drainage.
Fill up your pot with a potting mix. You can use a mixture of normal garden soil, organic compost and sand.
Put in a layer of just sand and stone at the bottom to promote more drainage.
Leaving a few inches off the top, the pot should be full with the soil. Now you can sow the seeds that have been drying for a day or so.
Space them out evenly on the surface. Cover these seeds up with an inch of potting mix.
Water these seeds thoroughly and keep in a bright sunny spot. Papaya trees love warmth!
After 2 or 3 days you’ll see your seedlings sprouting out. Leave them be for another 2 weeks to grow to about 10 inches.
Trim their roots as explained above to ensure they grow into female plants.
