High on Returns, Low on Input

The fruit is important for eye and skin health, bone health and blood clotting, cell damage protection and immune system boosting. All these benefits come from the calcium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins A, C and K present in this deceptively small, bright yellow-orange fruit that is eaten raw or cooked.

High on Returns, Low on Input

 Crops
 March 19, 2025

By Ogova Ondego
Published March 19, 2025

African Gooseberry is used in making juice, jam, sauce and chutney. If you want a fruit that contributes richly to your overall wellbeing with low input but high Return on Investment (RoI), then that is African Gooseberry whose scientific name is Physalis peruviana.

Though growing wild in Kakamega Forest, Timboroa Forest, Mount Elgon, Koibatek Forest, Mount Kenya and Coastal lowlands in Kenya, this ground cherry that is well known among Kenyan communities and even has local names is said to have originally come from the Andes Mountains (Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) in South America.

This shrub is known as aMayengo in Kakamega, Chimbunwe or Emilwa in Bungoma, Chinsobosobo in Kisii, Nyatongolo in Kisumu, Nathii in Kiambu and Surubali in Taita where it used to grow wild before land fragmentation and urbanisation encroached on its territory.

A self-pollinated plant which begins bearing 3 – 4 months after transplanting and continues bearing fruit for up to 2 years if maintained well, the fruits are usually picked by hand every 2 – 3 weeks.

Jam, juice, sauce and chutney can be made from this deceptively small, bright yellow-orange fruit that is eaten raw or cooked. This shrub is grown from either seed or stem cuttings.
“Although gooseberry can be planted on unhealthy degraded soils, it is recommended that green-manure legume crops (cowpeas, desmodium and beans) are periodically incorporated to improve the soil,” Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) says. “Cape gooseberry grows well on well-drained loam soils enriched with sufficient organic matter from humus and well decomposed farmyard manure (cattle and chicken) at least 10 to 20 tons per hectare.”

Though gooseberry can also grow on sandy soils, KALRO cautions against ‘over-fertilizing’ the soil as ‘excessive nitrogen will trigger excessive vegetative growth with poor fruit colour formation’.

The fruit is important for eye and skin health, bone health and blood clotting, cell damage protection and immune system boosting. All these benefits come from the calcium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins A, C and K present in this deceptively small, bright yellow-orange fruit that is eaten raw or cooked. It is used in making jam, juice, sauce and chutney. KALRO, which ranks this fruit as the 7th most important underutilized fruit in Kenya, says a single gooseberry plant can yield up to 300 fruits per season. The average yield is 4 – 6 tonnes per hectare and the fruits are sold on major highways and street corners, in open air markets and grocery shops and in supermarkets.

KALRO says gooseberry is harvested 60 to 100 days after flowering or when the calyx turns tan or light-brown, or fruit drop down. The harvest season lasts for 3 to 4 months and gooseberries can be harvested twice a year in Kenya, i.e from July to September and from December to March.