However, she is not at home and we are told she is busy pumping water from a borehole 500 meters away in the middle of her vast orchard. 

Heading toward the thumping sound of the pump generator, we are welcomed by the breathtaking view and fragrance of blossoming oranges. Beneath the gravel covered path, the red soil looks dry and dusty.  

In the distance, seven young farm workers load sacks full of oranges onto three trucks, which will be transported for sale to the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and other municipalities across the country. 

Kimanthi, a 38-year-old mother of three, said when she ventured into the agribusiness 15 years ago, she did not foresee a future where she would one day be a wealthy woman.  

"I was just a common farmer, growing maize and beans on infertile soil. But from an agriculture seminar I attended, I realized that the topography was optimal for the growth of oranges. So I tried planting a few seedlings," she told ChinAfrica. 

Through trial and error, Kimanthi kept learning as much as she could about growing oranges. She says by 2011, she only had a few mature orange trees on her farm.

"I had only planted 1 acre (0.4 hectare), but when my husband saw the [potential] benefits, he helped me plant orange seedlings on the whole 5 acres (2 hectares)," she recalls.  

Within five years, she was known as the local "guru" in orange farming and began educating other women about the opportunities of growing the fruit, taking them through the farming process from planting to maturity, harvesting and marketing.  

Kimanthi now grows a variety of citrus fruits, but one variety has brought her much fame and adoration from farmers from as far as Arusha, Tanzania. 

"During my continuous research, I had always wanted to plant oranges for the export market, [especially the variety] that has the highest value. I knew, through teaching other women how to grow these and giving them the seedlings, that I would be empowering a generation," said Kimanthi.  

Juicy opportunity 

Ordinarily, growing an orange tree from the seed to harvesting fruit can take up to 15 years; but by grafting improved varieties of oranges on lemon seedlings, it only takes three years to harvest the first seedless yield, said Kimanthi. 

She was fortunate to find seedlings of the most profitable variety of orange, called pixie in South Africa, although it is a native fruit of California in the United States and often described as a cross between oranges and tangerines.  

"The new variety is called pixie or clanor. It is a perfect round seedless fruit, yellow-orange in color and has a rough skin. The fruit is fleshy, juicy and easy to peel. It has dominated the market because of these qualities. The pixie tree can withstand drought and the ripe fruits can remain unharvested for several weeks without attacks from pests," said Kimanthi. 

Today, the pixie orange has inspired scores of Makueni County women to ditch the unprofitable business of farming maize, Kenya's staple crop, and cowpeas and they have Kimanthi to thank for helping them grow the fruits and find a ready market. In total, 23 women now grow the oranges on their own farms. 

One of them is Angeline Kioko, a neighbor of Kimanthi. "Before we planted pixie oranges, we used to struggle to get school fees for our children. Food scarcity was the norm and we lived in low quality traditional houses. Now, I am able to educate my children without stress and we sleep under a nice roof because of Lillian Kimanthi's motivation," Kioko told ChinAfrica.

With over 700 trees in her orchard, Kimanthi is not just admired by women. Men are now also big fans and many who used to work in the capital Nairobi, are now returning home to Makueni County to help their wives make more money. 

While an ordinary orange retails at $0.10 each in Kenya, the pixie variety goes for $0.40 each, making Makueni County increasingly more important for the orange export industry. 

"I used to work as a factory supervisor in Nairobi; but I quit when my wife told me she makes good money [by growing oranges]. We now work together on the farm," said Benjamin Mutua, a city returnee. 

Although pixies are only sold in the months of August, September and October, villagers in Muthyoi Village make enough income in that period to cater for all their needs for the rest of the year, and still make a profit. 

Kimanthi monitors the price of oranges across the country, and updates her neighbors timeously, which has helped them reap maximum returns. She and three of her protege farmers now also export the oranges to the United States.  

"On October 4, the price of ordinary oranges [in Kenya] was $0.35 per kg, while pixies fetch $1.2 a kg wholesale for export and local consumption. And this price will rise as supply diminishes," said Kimanthi. 

In the past three months, she has sold over 10 tons of pixie oranges, netting $12,000 in the process.  

Kioko is not far behind her mentor. "After deducting all the input costs, my profits have been $8,000 every year. I am currently looking for land to grow more fruits," she said. Kioko sold her first yields five years ago. 

The villagers can now afford trucks, and have also ventured into the business of transporting fruits, generating extra income. This has elevated the villagers from poverty to middle class status.

But even the most valuable oranges would fail without water. Here, once again, Kimanthi's generosity came to the fore. She provided her fellow women farmers with affordable water, at her own expense, from her own borehole, to irrigate their crops and taught them about irrigation techniques. This is done via drip irrigation, using pipes buried underground. 

"During harvest time, I have taught them how to make their oranges more juicy, fleshy and heavier. I have shown them how to feed orange trees with abundant water a week before harvesting and sale. That improves the quality and earnings," explains Kimanthi. 

The female orange farmers in Muthyoi Village are also assisting maize and bean farmers in the area. This is because since they stopped growing their own maize in favor of oranges, they now buy the maize, their staple food, and beans from others who farm it.

Kioko said it is better than before when they grew maize and beans as after consumption there was nothing left for sale for profit.

"After consuming everything, we couldn't educate our children. Although we lack the convenience of getting fresh maize from our farms, we can [now] afford to buy them [from other farmers]," she said. 

Makueni County is among 23 counties in Kenya that have been categorized by the government as arid or semiarid, with long dry spells and erratic rains. 

But it receives the recommended light intensity for ripening oranges, and the entire country now depends on the county for the supply of this produce.  

Comments to zanjifang@chinafrica.cn