Agriculture is one of the attractive sectors to start and run a business right now. But the challenges of Agribusiness puts a damper on farmers in Kenya and even discourages others from entry into the sector.
Yes, the Government really must step in and solve a number of the problems that you face in agribusiness. Nevertheless, you don’t have to sit back as you wait for serikali to jump into action. You can make steps towards solving some of the common problems you and all farmers in Kenya face.
1. Inconsistent income
This is a problem faced by every business person in the world. When it comes to agribusiness in Kenya, inconsistent income is caused by a variety of reasons. A key cause is the low prices primary commodities fetch. This is caused by flooding of markets during harvest season, high operating costs and inability to preserve farm products.
The best way to increase your earnings is to get involved in value addition. First, you must learn about the processes involved and conduct market research on what kind of value added products Kenyans would want. We have found you can make flour from potatoes and process maize into more than flour, for instance.
2. Small farm
Kenyan women, who dominate agriculture, and their small-holder farms feed this country. Small farms also provide a little avenue for young people to get into agribusiness, thanks to cost of land acquisition. But small farms have low absolute yields and higher cost of input, for every output, leading to low profits.
It would be ridiculous to suggest getting a bigger piece of land. Perhaps one big enough to fit a man-made lake. You can intensify activities in your farm. You can use more fertilizer, you can stack chicken cages one-on-top-of-the-other. But this must be properly managed to avoid quick diminishing returns. Another way to help yourself is form or join a farmers union that will give you greater bargaining power for inputs and sales.
3. Infrastructure
Good infrastructure is important for making the entire value chain of agribusiness in Kenya operate efficiently. It hurts producers and consumers when goods have to move on muddy roads or products can neither be safely stored nor preserved so they go bad.
First, let’s hope our County and National Government administrators will not relent on building roads. Meanwhile, you can adopt simple technological measures to save your products. You can use mobile monitoring platforms to harvest crops or feed animals at precise times. You can source special bags and innovations like mud silos to store prevent post-harvest loss. You can also learn techniques of water preservation.
4. Lack of information
To make the best decisions on your farming business you need all the information you can get your hands on, don’t you think? Some of the info that farmers in Kenya need include those on markets, competition, extension services, best practices and financing.
It’s a great thing that today ICT in Kenya has reduced the gap between information and farmer. There are startups reaching out to farmers to avail the kind of information they need at their convenience. You too can benefit from this. If not immediately, you can enjoy the free resource that is the internet. Beside this website there are other websites that every farmer in Kenya should know about.
5. Underdeveloped markets
If you are a farmer, I’m certain that you will agree with me that getting input and getting your produce to the market gives you a headache at times. Agriculture supply chain in Kenya is unorganized and brokers have taken advantage of this bottleneck and probable add upwards of 20% on final product of produce.
The best weapon you have against forces like these, apart from the Bible, is joining or forming a farmers union. They allow you to get the best prices for input and output, and can help you get access to facilities such as warehousing and transportation to bypass brokers.
CHECK OUT OUR INTERVIEWS WITH SUCCESSFUL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN KENYA
6. Credit
Farmers in Kenya are hindered by the fact that financial institutions do not have varied enough financing products catering to this specific need. Farmers on their part can struggle for collateral, for information on credit facilities and poor record keeping of financial records.
You can get loan approval and negotiate better terms by assuring banks or saccos that you’ll get your income through contract farming, and signing agreements such as forwards contracts that guarantee sale of produce. You may also join a farmers association that will allow you to mobilize collateral and get professional assistance in maintaining your financial records.
