Canola Seed Growing Tips
Canola Farming
Rape Seed Farming
High Value Crop Farming
Canola is a specific type of rapeseed plant associated with high quality oil and meal. The oil is low in saturated fat than any other vegetable oil, and is the best source of omega-3 fats. It is high yielding with oil content of 42-46%. The co-product (meal) is high in protein (48%) and very useful in livestock feed formulation. Canola oil can also be used for manufacturing biodiesel.
Economic Importance in Kenya
Canola has huge potential as an income generator in the country as an oil crop and livestock feed. The demand for vegetable oils low in saturated fats is high hence market is readily available for canola. The by product (cake) is also sold as a livestock feed to livestock farmers. Once established it does not require much attention other than spraying for pest control when necessary.
Ecological Requirements
Altitude: Rapeseed best grows between agro-ecological zones 1800 – 2400m above sea level.
Rainfall: The crop is primarily grown under rain-fed conditions however it responds well to supplemental irrigation. Canola consumes up to 500 mm of water during a growing season and will use as much as 7.5mm per day during peak periods.
Temperature: Canola requires cool weather conditions. The optimum temperature for growth and production is 21 °C. Temperatures below 10 °C result in poor germination and emergence.
Soils: Rapeseed performs well on a variety of soils with the loamy soils giving best results. It does not tolerate water logging.
Varieties: High yielding Canola lines suitable for various agro ecological zones developed by KARLO Njoro include:
Topaz, Gulliver, Niklas, Karat, 81-53413K, Oro, 81-55705B, willi, Christa
Line, Tower, Altex, Mary, Wesroona. These varieties have high oil and protein content.
To venture into the canola farming cultivating one acre of the farm will produce two tones within three months translating to eight tonnes per year per acre and a kilo of the seeds starts at KSh60.
“We encourage the farmers to grow the canola oil crop to shore up their income and boost our intake as a litre of oil requires four kilograms of seed.”
Rapeseed oil which is currently in high demand retails at KSh400 a litre, 200ml for KSh200 while a 500ml goes for Sh250.
NB: If you’re a farmer in the Counties of Bungoma, Kakamega, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia and interested let us know. Group farms are highly encouraged.
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