Passion That Refuses To Quit

I have started a farming column on this blog, because in addition to being a Rookie Manager, I am also a Rookie Farmer.  Let us share the lessons and our thoughts as we make Kenya food secure.  

Armed with the lessons learned from my previous attempts at farming, a spreadsheet of financial projections and many screenshots of Farming Kenya discussions, I decided to start farming once more. This was for two reasons; a rational one and an irrational one.

This was a lesson in intercropping

The rational reason is that Kenya is a net food importer for various silly reasons. In addition to this, we pay unreasonable prices for fresh fruits and vegetables because we have hyped and unintelligent farming methods. Our production patterns are all wrong. We all grow the same crop at the same time cause a glut and losses, then we desert it after which there are shortages. For example, let us consider tomatoes; About 7 months ago, there was a tomato shortage that saw tomato prices hit over 100 shillings per kg. The farmers who had tomatoes at that time made a killing and of course spoke about this, which saw many farmers rush into tomatoes. Four months later as these tomatoes flooded the market and the price dropped to as low as 50 shillings in the supermarket, and 800 shillings for a 70kg crate.  Disappointed by the dismal returns, most farmers stopped producing tomatoes and the price is back up. I expect that the price will drop between October and November, and the cycle continues.  Believe it or not, this happens every year and to every crop be it watermelon, green maize, onions and even sukumawiki (kales)!

This time round my strategy to focus on a few main crops and produce them all year round whether prices are up or down. No hype.  Of course this strategy presented some challenges and I will share those with you on this column. It has not worked for my main crop yet, but it has worked on my sukumawiki mini-farm. Two months ago, we had a sukumawiki glut where I farm. A kilogram was going for as low as 8 shillings. It is not a loss to sell at this price, but it is not too profitable either. Seeing this, most farmers deserted the crop (I kept planting more and more). We are currently  selling Sukumawiki at 18 shillings per kilogram and the price is still going up.  I am keeping a diary to see how long the shortage will persist and this will help me plan to have lots of sukumawiki at this time next year.  Now this is a basic example and I will explain in a later post why I have sukumawiki in my farm, a crop that has never made anyone a millionaire (at least not one we have read about 😉 )

The irrational reason why I returned to farming is passion. I say irrational because there are safer ways to invest my money than in a farm. The amount I have spent so far can buy me a third row plot in Kitengela, and we all know land buying is “in” right now. I could have bought a bond with the money and reinvested the interest to fund my daughter’s college education. I could have bought an education insurance cover or saved the money in a SACCO,  but no. I invested the money in a farm, where I have lost hundreds of thousands of shillings before.

Why? I resumed farming because this is the one thing I would do for no pay.  I am not a patient or a particularly persistent person in most things but farming. This convinces me that I will succeed because;  it is not the most exciting or innovative entrepreneurs that succeed, but the ones that refuse to quit.