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: 31 January 2018; Hits: 11877

Siaya banker earns Sh83, 000 a month from fruit seedlings side-hustle

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A Siaya County banker is earning Sh83, 000 a month from her side-hustle which involves raising different fruit seedlings and selling them for Sh120 to Sh200.

Sellah Awino Migaya first started out as a poultry farmer in 2016, rearing kuroiler and indigenous variety of chicken, which earned her Sh150, 000 net per month she then ventured into fruit nursey seedlings farming in June 2017 as another way of earning her extra income.

“I am impressed with the way my poultry business is doing, this has motivated me into starting a fruit nursery in order to diversify my source of income,” said the Bondo Sub-county farmer.

“I noticed people love fruits very much after observing how traders in the area market would run out of stock. This was an opportunity to produce seedlings for farmers within the area so that they can produce more fruits to save traders from hustling for the fruits from far.”

With a starting capital of about Sh5000, Awino bought some few seedlings from the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) branch in Kisumu while the rest she ordered from a fruit farm in Thika.

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Some of the fruit seedlings that she nurtures in her nursery, which is set few metres from River Yala, include solo sunrise pawpaw, grafted yellow passion, pepino melon, Washington navel variety of oranges and South African variety of oranges among other seedlings.

Between November and December last year she sold seedlings worth Sh83, 000 and was surprised by how the fruit nursery business had picked up in just six months.

“I had about 237 mature seedlings and by mid-December last year and I sold all of them,” she said.

Awino, who is now doing the restocking of her nursery, sells solo sunrise pawpaw seedlings at Sh120 each, grafted yellow passion seedlings at Sh200 each, orange seedlings at Sh160 each.

“Farmers like planting the Washington navel oranges because consumers prefer them as they are sweet oranges, large, seedless and have a rich, juicy flavor that is delicious for eating out of hand,” she said.

To ensure she produces clean seedlings free from pests and diseases, Awino incorporates the production process experts from KALRO and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS).

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: 30 January 2018; Hits: 8426

Naro Moru farmer gains buyers through Facebook

A farmer from Naro Moru village in Nyeri County has turned to Facebook to advertise and sell Brachiaria Mulatto II hybrid grass, a move that has enabled him to reach over 2,426 people.

Gibson King’ori opened his Facebook page in January 2016 but only used it for posting social matters until he learnt how the platform could be used as a selling tool during a farmer’s field in the county. While there, they were trained on how to reach more customers on social media.

“I wondered how my Facebook friends could be my potential customers given that most of them I barely knew on a personal level but I decided to give it a try,” said King’ori.

“I started by taking brachiaria grass photos and posting them on my account without including a caption. This brought in engagement as some asked questions while others appreciating the pictures by liking them.”

He went an extra mile to ask friends he knew to share the photos on Facebook in a bid to reach more people. His followers increased and so did the interest in the grass.

“When I realised more people were interested in the grass I started posting prices per split and sent messages of free delivery to those who were within 4-6km radius from my farm,” said King’ori.

He sells a split at Sh10, a bundle of 100 splits at Sh1000 and he can also measure them in kilograms whereby a kilo goes at Sh40.

Most of his customers, are livestock keepers and prefer brachiaria grass because of its high crude proteins at approximately 18 per cent, it is a drought tolerant fodder grass of up to six months, makes excellent silage and boost milk production in dairy cows and goats.

Today King’ori can deliver his seedlings all over the country for customers who order over 100 splits. His means of delivery to people from far places such as Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret , is through courier services such as Wells Fargo, buses, or matatu sacco courier services.

“I use other delivery services to reach my customers from far but for those within Central and Nairobi regions I use my car to make the deliveries,” said King’ori.

To entice more buyers during the last festive season from December 1^st 2017 to January 2018, he placed an offer: if a customer buys two bundles worth Sh2, 000 they would get another bundle free. This earned him Sh320, 000 as compared to Sh120, 000 he makes within two months on normal occasions.

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: 30 January 2018; Hits: 9250

Nigerian businessman gives farmers ready market

Emmanuel Bankole

Emmanuel Bankole, the founder and CEO of Agromarketplace Nigeria Limited, was voted as one of the 12 finalists in Gogettaz, a competition that involves entrepreneurs seeking financial injection and exposure for their business ventures from the entertainment company, Kwese Inc.

Agromarketplace is an online-offline agricultural commodities platform which provides 256 farmers dealing in perishable produce, a ready market in two days.

The platform which was founded in 2014 purchases the produce from the farmers then supplies them to over 250 agro industries across Nigeria before the produce perishes.

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“We have so far purchased produce worth $28,000 from farmers .The produce include cashew nuts, moringa (seeds and leaves), sesame seeds, soya beans, hibiscus and ginger amongst others,” said Emmanuel.

This entrepreneurial venture secured Emmanuel a place for those contesting for the grand prize of $100,000 and two week mentorship program with Strive Masiyiwa, the founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Global, a telecoms group with presence in over 15 countries.

Emmanuel was inspired to start Agromarketplace after various farm visits in which he realized that approximately 75 per cent of the farmers complained of lack of ready market for their produce.

“When I was young I often fell sick due to food related sicknesses arising from consuming stale food, this and lack of a ready market for farmers inspired me to start the company so as to help them access markets faster,” said Emmanuel.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, a third (1.3bn tons) of the food produced all over the world emanates from Africa. Despite this, 95 per cent of the urban dwellers, who contribute to the growth of the African economy; do not have access to fresh and healthy food.

This is because over one billion tonnes of food which constitutes about 70 per cent of fresh farm produce rots on the farm before it reaches consumers. The continent, thus, is still a huge importer of food although it has 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land.

Agromerchant, a subsidiary of Agromarketplace, partners with farmers and when the harvest is ready, farmers sell the produce online at www.agromerchant.com after registering and logging in. The company may also source, package and deliver (retail and bulk supply) fresh farm produce.

Emmanuel sends extension officers to the farms to ascertain the quantity and quality of the harvest before it is transported to the warehouse for preservation.

The produce should be certified by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, as fresh so that it is displayed on the website for both the local and international prospective markets.

“We also conduct doorstep delivery services to food vendors, agro-traders, conventional schools, exporters, restaurants and consumers, this is a step aimed at helping African farmers create wealth by increasing their profitability from 30 per cent to 70 per cent and boost food security,” said Emmanuel.

In addition to buying farmers produce online, Emmanuel is expanding Agromarketplace Nigeria Limited with two other subsidiaries; AgroHub-Initiatives and Agro-Enterprise hub.

With FAO estimating that 233m people in Sub-Saharan Africa are hungry and malnourished, the purpose of the hubs is to train at least 25,000 to engage in agribusiness, so far they have trained approximately 400 youth and rural women in the last three years.

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