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: 13 March 2018; Hits: 7676

Farmer reports prices twice as high besides highways than through middlemen

A road side market Traders selling onions and tomatoes along Nairobi-Mombasa highway. Traders adopting road side markets to sell directly to motorists and passangers. Photo courtecy.

Joseph Imorago, farmer from Kuresoi North, Nakuru County is selling his crop produce such as potatoes, carrots and green beans along Nakuru-kisumu and Nakuru-Sirare highways targeting long distance travelers earning Sh160,000 a season as opposed to Sh100,000 selling his produce to traders who buy from the farm paying less despite offering ready market.

These highways also pass busses and private vehicles ferrying dozens of people and items from Nairobi to western Kenya. Most of the towns in Rift Valley such as Narok, Nakuru, Molo and Bomet are some of the major stopping points where passengers have breaks for meals or to buy items.

“Buses and vehicles passing here carry people to or from Nairobi who are fond of our food produce because they are fresh from the farm and we measure in good quantity than in the towns where traders are targeting high profit from small amount of produce,” said Imorago

Some of the standing points where Imorago and colleagues have set their stands where they stage their items while selling include Mau Samit and Molo Town. According to him, bus and transit drivers know these places. They therefor slow down or stop to buy carrots, green beans, tomatoes and potatoes.

Drivers know these points where we sell our produce, some slow down while others such as private vehicles drivers stop and park vehicles to buy items here. We therefore need to be faster as there is no time to bargain much.

He sell potatoes in several quantities, two kilogram goes for about Sh60 each, a bucket of 20 lItres full of potatoes goes at Sh200 each, a bag of 50kilos fetches Sh2000 each and a bag of 90kilos he sells at sh3500 each.

To help him cope with the much activities from the farm to the roadside, Imorago involves his wife in the business. In the morning the wife would be at the road doing the sales while he does harvesting before transporting the produce using his motorbike to the road.

He joins his wife at noon to join hands in sales and run the business until in the evening. This process continues through the season until the crops are over then the two would embark on farming for the next season.

“We support one another to keep the business going. The profit we earn is almost double as compared to when we could have sold our produce to traders,” said Imorago.

He owns two acres of land which he has sub-divided to grow green beans, shangi variety of potatoes, carrots and vegetables among other crops.

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: 12 March 2018; Hits: 36404

Narok farmer earns Sh8,000 a week from traditional vegetables

A Narok farmer is earning Sh8,000 a week in profit by growing and selling traditional vegetables such as black night shade and spider plant. Income from growing and selling these vegetables has enabled her to afford utility bills, educate her children and invest in diversification through poultry keeping.

Farming can be a profitable and fulfilling activity for anyone with a commitment to pursue it as a career. For Florence Bonareri of Kilgoris, Narok County, farming has been her main source of livelihood

Organic vegetables over 6 times more nutritious, study

Indigenous vegetables promise farmers nutrients and profits in cash

“I started planting indigenous vegetables in 1998, it has enabled me educate my children and earn some income, as I participate in uplifting my country’s economy” says Florence. She grows indigenous vegetables commonly referred to as “saga & managu” in the local Kenyan dialects. She transports the vegetables from her farm in Usinoni village to Muthurwa market in Nairobi.

She started serious indigenous vegetable business five years ago and over the years she has scaled up the planting and selling of saga, managu and terere. Recently she diversified into tomato production and relies heavily on rains to water her crops.

“My challenge is that during the wet season the price of the vegetables drop to as low as Sh300 per sack as the demand is low and the supply is high” said Bonareri. However during the dry season period her vegetables fetch a high of up to Sh2,000 per sack. She thus prefers planting and selling her vegetables during the dry season as the market is open and not flooded. There are few vegetables and that means she gets to sell her vegetables at good prices enabling her to sustain the business.

Florence packs her vegetables for easy selling. A pack of saga fetches her Sh100 while a pack of managu goes for Sh150. On the other hand, when the market is flooded, the prices drop to Sh30. “When prices drop, it is hard to make any returns as we still have to pay for transport, cess, as well as the workers who work on packing the vegetables” said Bonareri.

saga 3

She has however learned to find the perfect balance between supply and demand for the right price that her customers are ready to pay. With the help of Equity bank, the farmer applied for an emergency loan of 20,000 shillings when her tomatoes got infested. She used the loan money to buy insecticides to spray the tomatoes which will be ready for harvesting in the next two weeks.

Florence has used proceeds from the indigenous vegetable business to diversify into indigenous poultry farming that just like the indigenous vegetables are on demand at the moment.

Farming has really been a successful story despite a few challenges she has faced. From her small venture, she has grown and established her own home all depending on farming as she has never worked elsewhere to get me. Her first born son who was in nursery school when she started the business is now at the Kenya Medical Training College studying clinical medicine. She also has twin boys who are both in form three and have all benefited from the farm proceeds.

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Sunday, 12 September 2021 Soon coming to Narok to venture

Wednesday, 13 January 2021 Am very much interested in this lucrative business, and soon am starting one.

Saturday, 07 November 2020 Amazing

: 09 March 2018; Hits: 8835

Kuresoi farmer saves Sh6000 monthly by selling milk to a cooperative

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Sophia Ngatia, dairy farmer from Kuresoi is saving more than Sh200 boda boda transport cost daily translating to Sh6000 a month by selling her milk to a cooperative society at her farm at Sh30 a litre than transporting the milk to Molo Town for hawking at Sh40 a litre and still incur other losses due to risks of milk spillage.

She has four lactating Friesian cows which produce between 23 and 25 litres of milk each per day giving her about 100 litres of milk per day. She sells these to agents from Star Light Cooperative Society (SLCS) of which she is a member. The agents come daily to collect the milk from her farm.

“I prefer selling my milk to our cooperative because they save me the hustle of transporting milk to town where I am not even sure I may sell or not sell the milk at all,” said Sophia.

“I also find it as a way of supporting the growth of our cooperative which help us reach markets and save our milk from spoilage.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Dairy farmers milk millions with cooperative

Milk delivered to SLCS is recorded on a daily basis depending on the number of litres delivered by every farmer then the farmers are paid at the end of every month.

Sophia is also the chairperson of Kangawa Upendo Group, the group through which she entered SLCS which was launched in 2014 and has over 200 members currently from other farmer groups such as Kirima and Nyakinya.

To register as a member of SLCS, individual farmers from these groups are required to buy shares worth Sh5000 each, the amount which can be paid in monthly instalments or deducted from the milk sales to the cooperative at the end of the month till the amount is fully settled.

“We do not find it difficult buying the shares because we are allowed to pay in small amounts or the amount can be taken bit by bit from the monthly payments from the milk we deliver until all the amount is fully cleared,” said Sophia.

She earns a total of about Sh90,000 from the 3000litres of milk she delivers to the cooperative in a month.

Other than providing markets for farmers’ milk, SLCS also organise trainings for their member farmers in Kuresoi by bringing in experts and agro input companies to teach farmers and offer them farm implements.

“So far we have benefited from trainings offered by agricultural officers from Nakuru County, experts from Juudi Kilimo, Tular Inputs, Musoni Kenya and we are still expecting Economic Project Transformational Facility (EPTF) which has promised to come and train us on climate change issues.”

Other than milk production, members of SLCS are also involved in production of crops such as potatoes, vegetables, tomatoes and fruits among others.

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