New initiative offers farming partners huge opportunities

Those who have dived into the waters of farming can admit that it is not child’s play.

“When you start it and need advice, you get it from all unsolicited quarters,” says Maina Karuiru.

The founder Food Quality and Safety shared his sentiments during the unveiling of Farm Kenya Initiative by Standard Group PLC on Thursday evening.

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“When you inquire about the best fertilizer, you get unsolicited advice from all quarters. Your pub mates, church mates, your family, your neighbors... you wonder, ‘which fertilizer should I use’. My pastor’s fertilizers or my chama’s or my pub mates’? It is chaos.”

Such is farming in Kenya. Although it has been shown to have great potential if done under a sea of ignorance, trial and errors, it leads to costly mistakes.

Opportunity to fill this information gap, The Standard Group unveiled a multimedia platform that seeks to convey impactful agricultural information and knowledge transfer and showcase innovation. Through FarmKenya Initiative, the Group seeks to use all its media to relay credible, relevant and timely agricultural information.

The platforms include KTN Farmers TV, Wakulima Radio, a digital website, Outdoor/Events, SMS direct marketing platform, Apps, social media and strategic partnerships.

Unveiling the initiative in Nairobi Standard Group CEO Orlando Lyomu said this is an opportunity to walk the journey together with stakeholders.

“We are ready to cocreate content that works for you, find solutions together, go to the farmers together and set up new effective channels of relaying information,” Lyomu said.

Evidence on the ground shows that there is a hunger and a thirst for credible information among farmers on markets, trends, production, yields etc but the same is not available.

Speaker after speaker pointed out that there’s a dearth farming knowledge on the ground.

Tim Chesire, a dairy feeds farmer shared his experience. “This time last year, I ventured into bee keeping with gusto. I bought the hives and I put them somewhere I though was strategic. After three months, I came to check if there was honey, but there was nothing. What have I done

wrong?” Chesire wondered back then. “I consulted some old man and he told me to use an old box. After more trials still there was no honey. “Now after several false starts, few days ago I got my first harvest- half a liter of honey and I am proud of myself. I am so proud of myself I walk everywhere with it. I even showed an elderly friend fruits of my sweat,” Chesire said.

Many farmers across the country can relate to his experience. From the talks, it was noted that had Chesire received the right information from the word go on the right hives and all, he would not have suffered.

Founder of Tharaka Pure Honey Miriam Kindiki pointed out that there is lack of awareness on the potential of bee-keeping. “Many young people do not know that they can make a decent living from keeping bees. “There is an insatiable demand for quality honey in Kenya and abroad.

Since news broke that sugar is mixed with mercury more people have shifted to honey. Honey is also good for skin,” she noted.

She lauded the FarmKenya Initiative noting that it will go a long way in changing wrong attitudes and perceptions about bee keeping.

Beekeeping Zerone IT solutions, cofounder Martin Ndeto, lauded the move and called on the need for the media house to have an archive of accurate and detailed agriculture information

for farmers. “I am a computer scientist and I deal with data. What we have noticed is that there is no data at all in terms of agricultural activities that go on in the country.

“We do not know what is on demand. There is no single centre where you can tell how much of one crop was ground in an area. There is also shortage of info regarding the skills, like what it takes to farm,” Ndeto said.

Kikonde Mwatela of Twiga Food also brought in a new angle that has been ignored — mentorship. “I went into export business with some friends few years ago. It was a total disaster. Now we know better.

There was nobody to walk us through the journey and that ended up costing us. Like us, most young people starting off lack mentorship,” Mr Mwatela said.

Karuiru echoed his point: “Yes young people lack role models in farming, that’s why they blunder.”