Hello there!
How are you? Please accept my apologies for the silence… I decided to get into the “real world” and get a “real job”. I didn’t stop farming… That is still going on albeit a little differently. In brief… The onions we started out with failed… and they failed miserably. The weather conditions were not suitable…someone should have told us that you plant onions in the short-rains season (September-November), not, the long rains season (April-July). We were able to sell some produce, but most of it was not suitable for the markets.
Special thanks to all our friends and family who bore through the sogginess of those onions and exclaimed that those were the best onions they’d ever tasted!
In July 2013, after the interesting encounter with the onions, it was time to switch gears, think bigger, long-term… in short, be more strategic… Cue in my family…
Using our networks…we searched high and low for a suitable solution. We had all this land, and we didn’t know what to with it… well we didn’t know how to make it profitable. After one of the many meetings we had where we poured out our frustrations to the other party, a simple suggestion was offered to become a contract farmer. Immediately, we began looking up what the term meant and what that would look like on our farm. It was at that time that we learnt about farms and companies like Triple A growers, Kenya Horticultural Exporters, Everest Enterprises and a host of others. We also had the opportunity to visit contract farms and learn about the processes, successes and challenges involved.
During one of the visits to an out-grower we learnt about the intricacies involved in setting up your farm and getting the right company to offer technical advice, and buy your produce. Soon after the visit, in September 2013, we decided to become contract farmers. Thus, the process began of getting our land ready and “commercially viable”.
In my next post, I’ll be looking at all the steps we took to get ready. To be honest, 1 year later… it still feels like we are getting ready, but, I’ll share what we have done so far.
Thanks for reading!
The Kenyan Farmer
FYI: A contract farm/out-grower scheme can be defined as a contractual partnership between growers or landholders and a company for the production of commercial forest/agricultural products. Out-grower schemes or partnerships vary considerably in the extent to which inputs, costs, risks and benefits are shared between growers/landholders and companies. Partnerships may be short or long-term (e.g 40 years), and may offer growers only financial benefits or a wider range of benefits. Also, growers may act individually or as a group in partnership with a company and use private or communal land. Out-grower schemes are usually prescribed in formal contracts. (FAO)Through various multilateral and bilateral agreements with European nations and other international organisations, Kenya has used horticulture as an avenue towards increased economic growth and revenue earnings thus, making horticulture a very lucrative venture for small holder farmers.