Farmer squeezes Sh2.4m a year from mango trees

Mangoes on the market

As a proponent of the idea that youths need to be involved in agriculture and take it as a form of employment I go great lengths in looking for ways to justify and convince them. One way of doing this is by sharing success stories on how farmers have made it in different agricultural practices and to this effect, I do a lot of reading and research to bring such stories to my readers.
Today, am going to share with you on how Mr Francis Kiplaga has made it from Mango tree farming - a farming venture that one won't even imagine of when planning for his/her farming. This story was featured in one of the Kenyan dailies and it can be accessed here.

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Promoting Local Innovations - Key to success

 
PROLINNOVA South Africa: Sparks on the Rainbow from CTA on Vimeo.

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Reaping big from farming butterflies

"Whenever I meet people and tell them that I am a butterfly farmer, they look at me with a sense of disbelief. They ask me: what does a butterfly farmer do, and what does it involve? Do you want to tell us that you grow butterflies?" These are the words from the host's mouth Clivon Mwachola a butterfly farmer in relation to people's bewilderment over his agricultural venture.
This 26 year old young man is a true example that as young farmers we can succeed by thinking out of the ordinary maize/beans farming. The full article can be accessed below. 
The Standard | Reaping big from farming butterflies

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Mushrooms, the lesser known forest treasure.

Where I come from- the western parts of Kenya, mushrooms are a resource whose importance has been under-estimated. Mushroom harvesting has been regarded as a children playing activity and I vividly remember those days on Saturdays or during the April/August holidays (Mushroom season) when this used to be my favorite game. (Partly because it earned me a chance to walk with Sharon – the girl in the neighborhood) I could spend the whole day harvesting mushroom as long as I was with her even when we were not talking to each other.

Of all the lot we harvested, only a portion could end up into our kitchen and the rest went bad and was thrown as nobody took it seriously.

With my biology in school, I have known mushroom species such as boletus,cantharellus and morchella grow naturally in symbiosis with the local woodland. And with my interactions, I have known these mushrooms are highly demanded in developed countries and in big hotels within the country. Their careful and well-managed exploitation could not only lead to the forest preservation but also the local economy. As the youth full of energy for running up and down, we can tap into this invaluable resource - obwoba and emmancipate ourselves from the shackles of poverty and unemployment.

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Accelerating agribusiness; MFarm

When we talk of agribusiness;
IMAGINE A FARMER WHO......
• gets real time price information and doesn't have to deal with brokers
• sells his/her produce to the ready local and international market via mobile phone.
• gets farm inputs offer updates at reach
SUPPLIER WHO........
• reaches and track down the progress of his clients via click of a button
• does campaign management and support subsidized and increase his sales and customer loyalty
AND A BUYER that gets farm produce information from various markets
 For much more on how to make this happen, click here
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Why farmers have to choose between organic farming and using greenhouses.

The advent of greenhouses has been occasioned by the hostile weather conditions and is geared towards reducing the risks associated with climate change on crop production and increase productivity but thats not just it.  

Tomatoes in a greenhousesystem

Principles upon which greenhouse systems operate promote cultivation of high economic value crops in order to make up for the systems’ high cost. To this effect, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have monopolized the systems leaving out other useful plants that nourish the soils. These systems therefore employ intensive use of chemicals to make up for natural regeneration of soil fertility.

One of the organic farming principles - Cyclical principle encourages collaboration with nature through the establishment and build-up of a cyclical principle that ensures versatility, diversity and harmony, and the re-cycling and use of renewable resources. It is upon this principle that conflict between the two farming systems arises; Greenhouse farmers who have attempted to go organic have reverted back to the use of chemicals after two or three seasons. One has to make a choice

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Are you an organic farmer? Meet other organic farmers on facebook and exchange ideas.

The organic farmer magazine and radio enthusiasts now have a platform where they can virtually meet and exchange ideas, share experiences and learn from the same.

Social media is attractive and interactive – be the next fan of TOF on facebook and get solutions to your farm related issues online through learning from others in similar situations. See more information and join here.  
While you agree with me that resources such as land and capital paramount for any agribusiness venture, it will be suicidal for any entrepreneural venture to neglect the role of information. Social media has a role to play here.

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GIS for Agribusiness

For agricultural Tech-savvy this is going to be interesting; ESRI produces a newsletter on GIS for Agribusiness semi annually. The newsletter has articles on how people working in the agriculture industry gain advantages from geospatial technologies – people working in the field of agribusiness are applying GIS to improve crop management, business strategies, and communications.For the latest on GIS news, visit; www.esri.com/agriculture

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Value Addition in Agri-Business Value Chain

The small holders, mostly poor in rural areas, have been dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. It has been observed that due to overexploitation of natural resources available and accessible to them, the primary production activities (agriculture and animal husbandry) carried out by them are under increasing threats of sustainability. This notwithstanding, farmers continue getting poor rewards for their hard work on the farm due to the crude form in which they sell their products. A simple step of value addition can make a big difference financially. Such was the theme of this conference that was held in Uganda;



The following are some of the benefits of value addition;
• Increased farm level incomes.
• Diversity of incomes.
• Reduced risks from external factors and stabilized farm output prices.
• Improved productivity of inputs and reduction in cost of production.
• Improved capacities to organize and manage complex operations for agricultural production.
• Socially acceptable and better quality of life will be achieved.

Agribusiness has the greatest potential of having the greatest impact in poverty eradication.

Financial security and employment opportunities are all the youth need in order to get involved in agriculture. As children we’ve always nursed dreams of becoming bankers due to translating their dealing with money to mean having plenty of it and associating farming to lack of it. To change this perception, there is need for appropriate policies to be put in place. Policies that will make land accessible to the youths, policies that will support implementation of an infrastructure that supports production and the development of financial loans directed at the youth in agriculture and support agribusiness.
Agribusiness holds the greatest potential of emancipating the greatest number of youth from the yolks of poverty and unemployment among the emerging markets. About 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas where agriculture is the major economic activity and therefore it should be prioritized due to its potential for broad development impact especially in poverty reduction.

Market information: Good for farming business and food security

“Why is it that our youth today are easily spending 1000 shilling on a single vote to keep Sharon in the Big Brother Africa House, and are rather less inclined to pay for mobile market info at 1200 Shilling a months?”
This food for thought was shared by Enoth Mbeine of FIT-Uganda during one of the sessions at the successful APF Uganda Market Information Symposium held in Kampala on 15 and 16 September. It sums up that the innovations are there, but getting them implemented and refined may take another quantum leap: farming needs to be seen as a viable business, especially by the youths.
Close to 170 participants from the business sector, farmer groups, government, development agencies, NGOs and service providers (including media) rolled in and out of the venue for two days. They networked, shared information at the market, listened to diverse presentations on innovations in the sector from Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, and discussed ways forward.

How to make money from farming

One area that one can invest in and get good returns is agriculture. But making money in the sector means having knowledge and skills on crop production or livestock keeping. Dr Annemarie Kamuyu, the co-founder of Kilimo Faida, knows this only too well.

She believes that improving agricultural productivity requires development and adoption of suitable agricultural technologies. In 2008, with the help of a colleague, she founded Kilimo Faida, which aims to find markets for farmers and update them on market prices. Dr Kamuyu, who implements and oversees the workings of the project, says it also helps farmers get access to seasonal credit and obtain farm inputs like seeds, agrochemicals, fertilisers, soil testing services and the expert advice of agronomists.

The organisation is also engaged in training farmers in agricultural best practices. She explains how financing the farmer works and how one can get the most out of agriculture. She also gives us her thoughts on money.
full article in the daily nation

Highest returns on investment; try agribusiness

There are fast ways of generating wealth and jobs, and slow ways. Yet I never heard an aspiring entrepreneur talking about their return on capital when they were outlining the printing business, the chicken farm, the online fruit store, or the removals company they wanted to launch.Follow this link to see how agribusiness can make a difference