Three weeks ago, I had a chance to meet with OYESKA GREENS farmers at the Kenyan Coast. We also had invited a field expert from Syngenta (Mark Kaloki) to teach us how to grow tomato nursery beds. Listening to Mark share success stories of farmers he had worked with; farmers who had succeeded in farming, I realized that majority of smallholder farmers including our smallholder farmers at the Kenyan Coast were missing out on three important things.
1. Farmers were not treating farming like a business.
2. Farmers were not taking time to plan.
3. Farmers were not asking for knowledge from the experts. If they asked, they often were asking knowledge from extension officers that were not up to date with the current trends.
He asked farmers to treat their small farms as hybrid cattle. The more care you take for your hybrid cattle; the more milk and returns you get. It’s as simple as it can get.
He gave simple yet very powerful examples to farmers. For example, he shared the success story of Mr. Njoroge. He earns Kenyan shillings 5000 a week from Mchicha sales. Every morning, he sits in his luxurious chair as he waits for buyers to stop by his chair and pay for the fresh Mchicha they have picked from his farm. When you do the math, Mr Njoroge brings in a net income of 1 million Kenyan shillings. Mr Njoroge is a classic example of a farmer who had treated farming like a business, a farmer who plans before the season starts, and a farmer who seeks expertise from the people who have it. Another success story was from a farmer at the Kenyan Coast who exports papaya’s to Saudi Arabia. He asked the farmers to raise their hand, if they had ever tended to their papaya trees. of course, none of the farmers including me raised their hands.
To me, this two examples; Mchicha and Papaya represented examples of crops that were easy to tend to, yet we as farmers had failed to look at them as possible sources of income. He had convinced us that treating farming like a business and choosing these two crops could make any one farmer rich.
Planning was also a key thing that separates winners form losers. He said farmers who make the most out of farming have a plan. Before the planting season begins, they plan on what they will grow, when they will grow it, the quantity, as well as figure out a rotation plan. They visualize and see it before it happens. They also do the numbers.
Taking the three points seriously, our extension officer promised that we would be able to make our first million. Using simple, but yet powerful success stories, he had inspired me and the rest of the 15 farmers.
I left the meeting and Kenya, optimistic that by the end of 2015, our small community-would have produced 15 millionaires.
1. Farmers were not treating farming like a business.
2. Farmers were not taking time to plan.
3. Farmers were not asking for knowledge from the experts. If they asked, they often were asking knowledge from extension officers that were not up to date with the current trends.
He asked farmers to treat their small farms as hybrid cattle. The more care you take for your hybrid cattle; the more milk and returns you get. It’s as simple as it can get.
He gave simple yet very powerful examples to farmers. For example, he shared the success story of Mr. Njoroge. He earns Kenyan shillings 5000 a week from Mchicha sales. Every morning, he sits in his luxurious chair as he waits for buyers to stop by his chair and pay for the fresh Mchicha they have picked from his farm. When you do the math, Mr Njoroge brings in a net income of 1 million Kenyan shillings. Mr Njoroge is a classic example of a farmer who had treated farming like a business, a farmer who plans before the season starts, and a farmer who seeks expertise from the people who have it. Another success story was from a farmer at the Kenyan Coast who exports papaya’s to Saudi Arabia. He asked the farmers to raise their hand, if they had ever tended to their papaya trees. of course, none of the farmers including me raised their hands.
To me, this two examples; Mchicha and Papaya represented examples of crops that were easy to tend to, yet we as farmers had failed to look at them as possible sources of income. He had convinced us that treating farming like a business and choosing these two crops could make any one farmer rich.
Planning was also a key thing that separates winners form losers. He said farmers who make the most out of farming have a plan. Before the planting season begins, they plan on what they will grow, when they will grow it, the quantity, as well as figure out a rotation plan. They visualize and see it before it happens. They also do the numbers.
Taking the three points seriously, our extension officer promised that we would be able to make our first million. Using simple, but yet powerful success stories, he had inspired me and the rest of the 15 farmers.
I left the meeting and Kenya, optimistic that by the end of 2015, our small community-would have produced 15 millionaires.
