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: 13 August 2020; Hits: 3583

Youth farmer: student gets cabbages moving on WhatsApp

WhatsApp Image 2020 08 04 at 19.39.12

By George Munene

According to the 2019 Kenyan population and housing census 30.2 million (78.3%) of the country’s population, is aged 35 and younger. The average age of a farmer in Kenya though remains 60 years despite the youth (18-34 year olds) making up 29% of the population and the unemployment rate among this cohort being a conservative 35%.

The government has for a long time been trying to get the youth engaged in agriculture and with schools closed at least until the turn of the year, many young people are desperate for a source of income.

We want to bring forth stories from across the country of the youth just now getting into agriculture or those who were already engaged in agribusiness, highlighting their success, the challenges they face and failures.

Tony Munene is a 24 year old student at Thika Technical Training Institute. On half an acre at Nkubu town, Meru County, he practices mixed farming majoring in cabbages which he has 4,000 of. He’s been farming for 3 years now, but mainly did this over the holidays. With Covid-19 putting most learning on the backburner, he has gone full hog into farming. At 2 ½ months, he’s already harvesting some of his cabbages and selling them to neighbours and friends. The market for cabbages, he says, has been lukewarm; he is selling a head of the giant Michelle F1 variety for Sh30.

After tilling his land, he transplants his cabbages from his nursery with fertiliser. 2-3 weeks later, he top dresses them with fertiliser and manure. At times, he has no manure or it is inadequate, to meet this deficit he increases the quantity of fertiliser he applies.

Some of the marketing strategies he employs confirm his youth; he hawks his cabbages on WhatsApp class groups and has found good business in this as yet untapped agricultural marketplace.

He hopes to make about Sh80, 000 from his cabbages over 3 months, deducting Sh20-30,000 for production costs, transport and incidentals he is looking to net at least Sh50-40,000

Being a young farmer has its unique set of challenges as he explains: “At times I do not have adequate funds, and as I am not formally employed this forces me to look for odd jobs and plough what I get into buying fertilisers or pesticides.” This leaves time for his crops to be attacked by pests and hinders their optimal growth. It also takes away from time he could have used to tend to his crops.

Despite this, he remains unbowed, determined to make his farming story a success.

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: 13 July 2020; Hits: 3985

FarmBiz TV:Homabay farmer ditches amaranth for Chia making Sh60k in 3 months.

chia seeds salvia hispanica 500x500 By John Matava

Homabay farmer Philip Odhiambo is earning Sh60,000 every three months from Chia, which is twice as much as he was earning from the same plot down to amaranth.Philip used earn Sh30,000 per harvest from the amaranth, which takes two months to mature. However, in 2017, he switched to chia farming after realising the strength of its prices, short maturity period and nutritious benefits.From an acre he gets an average 400kgs that retail and at Sh150 per kilo to earn Sh60,000. He could earn three fold by selling to the international market where a kilo goes for Sh600 to Sh1200.

Rising demand for herbs and spices in local and international markets ignites the farming in Kenya

Farmer targets more income with rising demand for rare crops

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: 13 July 2020; Hits: 4146

Ministry of Agriculture gives kitchen garden kits to a million households to create food security

CAS Madam Anne Nyaga launched the 1 MILLION HOME GARDENS 1024x757 By Jolene Njambi

The Ministry of Agriculture has embarked on a kitchen gardening project, delivering sacks, seeds and water tanks to at least a million Kenyan households in both rural and urban areas to cushion them from severe food shortages during the COVID-19 period.

The project dubbed The National Agriculture and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP) will be supported by The Small Scale Irrigation Value Addition Project (SIVAP) and The Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP), and is aimed at ensuring food for the underprivileged and resource-poor households by facilitating kitchen garden set ups on balconies, estates, home gardens and compounds.

With the United Nations warning that COVID-19 pandemic will drive more than a quarter of a billion people globally to the brink of starvation, the resources available for food production, and particularly inputs, have become more scarce and more costly, and food prices have already begun rising. By May, pollster Geopoll found that over 86 per cent of 400 Kenyans surveyed were concerned about an impending food crisis since the pandemic first broke out.

With this in mind, the government is stepping in with the kitchen gardening project as a swift move to address the imminent food security challenges.

Launched on June 25 , the CAS of Ministry of Agriculture, Madam Anne Nyaga in Kasikeu, Makueni County explained that the targeted households will be provided with a starter kit of 10gms of seeds of kales, spinach, black nightshade, amaranthus, and ¼ kg cowpeas seeds, a shade net for a multi-story garden and 50-litre water tank.

Additionally, other kitchen garden technologies that will be introduced are: multi-storey gardens, cone gardens, hanging gardens, micro gardens (buckets, tyres and other containers) moist bed gardens, staircase gardens, aquaphonics and food robe garden.

Each kit costs Sh1,350 translating to Sh1.35bn for the targeted one million households.

“With reduced incomes and loss of jobs in the informal sector, most households are not able to buy food. The inexpensive kitchen gardens are meant to cushion them and maintain healthy living during the pandemic,” said Ms. Nyaga speaking at the launch.

Household recruitment will be done on county level by county administrators, with each county expected to recruit at least 6,000 to 20,000 households depending on the need, priority being given to poor households with large families, single parent households, widows and widowers.

For households with surplus production, solar dryers with the capacity to dry 10 kilograms of vegetables per hour will be supplied.

So far, The National Agriculture and Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP) has supported over 19,750 beneficiaries across 21 counties, the Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP), 171,992 beneficiaries across 24 counties and the Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project (SIVAP) 15,000 beneficiaries bringing to a total of 206,742 beneficiaries. SIVAP will further support 200,000 households across 21 counties.

Photo credit: Picture from kilimo.go.ke showing CAS Madame Anne Nyaga launching the project in Kasikeu, Makueni County.

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