Horticulture opens path to tidy profit for young graduate
Nimrod Kibet inspects onions at his farm in Eldoret. The 24-year old has ventured into horticulture, growing crops for local and export market. Photo/Courtesy
Nimrod Kibet had never though of starting a business until he lost his first job at an Eldoret-based pharmaceutical company.
The 24-year old graduate of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) used his savings and with support from his parents, ventured into self-employment.
Armed with skills from his horticultural course, Mr Kibet invested part of the Sh150,000 capital to lease a two-acre piece of land at Kipsinende in the outskirts of Eldoret town where he took to cultivating a variety of fruits and vegetables for local and export markets.
“The beginning was never easy owing to limited capital and the market scope but determination and self-discipline enabled me to overcome some of the challenges,” Mr Kibet says.
He began by planting cabbages and sukuma wiki on one acre, targeting the local market, to develop a strong capital base to allow him farm through drip irrigation.
“Drip irrigation requires massive investment to install appropriate equipment and adopt up-to-date crop production techniques to meet international standards,” explains Mr Kibet.
Starting with a workforce of two employees, Mr Kibet has, in a span of five years, become an employer of more than 20 casual labourers, with five others on permanent employment.
“It requires an average of Sh300,000 to fit a suitable drip irrigation system which is a challenge to most farmers,” says Mr Kibet.
Some of the crops he plants under drip irrigation include baby corn, French beans, snow peas, sugar snaps and such fruits like passion and tree tomatoes.
The drive to self-employment is now paying off for Mr Kibet as he can penetrate the export market, thanks to a contract he has entered with CanKen International that operates at the Eldoret International Airport.
The farmer earned Sh26,000 from 300-400 kilogrammes of snow peas last season after investing Sh6,000 in the crop for two and half months.
He earned a further Sh175,000 from baby corn after injecting Sh60,000 for two and half months and Sh45,000 from 500kg of sugar snaps after investing Sh7,000 over the same period.
“Horticulture is proving to be a lucrative venture due to ready market of the produce at attractive rates,” Mr Kibet says.
The drive by Mr Kibet to tap opportunities in the export market has been boosted by the move by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to refurbish its airstrips in Western Kenya region to handle more flights and increase volume of horticultural commodities to meet demand in the foreign market.
“Regular consultative meetings are aimed at promoting horticultural production targeting export market to facilitate effective usage of the airport,” says Peter Wafula, the manager in charge of the Eldoret International Airport and other airstrips in the Western Kenya region.
Horticultural production in the region is still too low to fill up a cargo plane at ago so that the produce is exported directly to markets in Europe.
The Kenya Airport Authority (KAA) has also expanded its cold room storage facility at the Eldoret International Airport from 150 metric tonnes to 300 metric tonnes to enable horticultural traders from the Western region access European markets, all good news to investors like Mr Kibet.
But Mr Kibet says lack of cold room storage at the farm level, to sustain required temperature level for the harvested crop a waiting transportation to the airport, is a major challenge to most farmers targeting the export market.
He, however, explains that farmers can make use of improvised charcoal cooler system that goes for Sh70,000 and lasts for about four to five years.
“Where there is a will, there is a way and farmers should not be discouraged by such challenges, including stringent conditions in penetrating the European market, to achieve better returns for their horticultural produce,” says Mr Kibet.
He appeals to the farmers to form societies to enable them access credit facilities from micro-finance institutions and a wide market for their produce.
