Market Day

I read somewhere that sustainable farming is about building relationships, living with purpose and making enough profits to lead a desirable way of life. This couldn't be any closer to the truth. Last saturday I took my melons to a farmers' market at a restaurant in Karen. The day was amazing as I got to meet a different clientele plus I was giving an irresistible offer of two big melons plus a bonus baby melon or three medium melons plus a bonus baby melon. I got to sell about half of the sacks I went with and I would have sold everything but the regular farmers were saying that it was a slow day that market day.

My birthday also came in the middle of this week and to fulfill my philanthropic duties, I gave a sack of melons to the students at Ngong Township Primary school for them to enjoy. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

I'll be going back to the farm tomorrow to plan for my next crop which is coriander commonly known as dania. I like farming and the prestige it has among young people who I think live vicariously through me. I am glad to be that vessel. Till we meet again, stay hungry, and I will feed ya :)   

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Sweet Baby Melons

I've started harvesting my melons! I plucked one last week and ate it on monday but you could taste it was taken from the mother plant a few days too early. I then plucked several yesterday and these were just right. The biggest ones weighed 3kgs! I tasted one of those 3kg-ers, and boy were they sweet and full of sugar. I hear that if melons are watered too much they become watery but not sweet, but if they are watered sparingly, they develop a sweetness that is excrutiating! I guess I have my water problems to thank for my sweet melons.

The neighbour who gives me water from his borehole has been acting up, even denying me water for a whole week, not to mention a time when the water pump had broken down for two weeks. In the end though, the result is some sweet fruits. However, this has also led to some plant losses as some were not as strong without the water on those occassions it was missing. Things on the water front have stabilized a bit and I'm looking forward to an uninterrupted supply. Though now I know better than to over-water them.

If you see me around, ask me for a melon especially now that the sun is hotter than July itself. Have a thirsty week :)

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June: My busiest month in print

June 2013 is shaping up to be my busiest month in print with my creative works being featured on three different publications. The first and biggest is the Msafiri article. Msafiri Magazine is the Kenya Airways In-flight magazine that passengers enjoy during their stay onboard and they can take it with them. The article on urban farming is aptly titled 'Urban Roots' and is on page 92-97 with full-page photos on each opposite page for the three page story. You can read it online here http://t.co/4twu7jVq7W

My second creative output on print is a poem titled 'Kaa Chonjo' which is Swahili for stay alert. The poem is now in a book and forms part of a poetry anthology by Kenyan Poets titled 'The Power of Words.' The poem speaks about the scourge of human and child trafficking. I have been using the poem for my counter-trafficking campaigns in schools. Here is coverage of the book's launch http://t.co/LsR9eknacN

The third but not least are two articles which are part of my regular contribution to Hortfresh Journal, a horticultural magazine. One of the articles is an editorial where I talk about the watermelon craze and the second is a feature coverage I did on Kenya's biggest solar installation which is at Uhuru Flowers in Nanyuki. You can find them here www.hortfreshjournal.com

I'm looking forward to more of my work on print for posterity, that's my legacy afterall!         

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Prezzo Interview on urban farming for Msafiri

Prezzo, I am a journalist with Hortfresh Journal, a Horticultural magazine and I am writing an article on urban farming for Msafiri- the Kenya Airways In-flight magazine. I would like to ask you a few questions about the topic if you so agree. My first question is, what do you think can be done to bring more urban youth into farming? Secondly, what do you see as the future of farming in Africa? Your answers to these questions will form part of my article. I greatly appreciate your involvement. Kindly email me the answers on bernardmuhia2000@gmail.com and DM me the email address you have used so that I know which one is the genuine you. Thanks Boss

Using Agriculture to combat Human Trafficking

Today as we were tilling around the watermelon shoots that have just come out of the soil, I was making small talk with the casual labourers on my 3 acre farm in Olturoto, Kitengela, Kenya. Our ideas led us to what the Deputy President said about agriculture; that it holds the key to rural growth, that they want to reverse rural-urban migration to urban-rural migration as young people go back to the farms. This got me thinking of the simple math that they are applying; if 80% of Kenyans live in the rural areas where they are farmers and 80% of Kenyans are poor, then simply improving the Farming profession is the key to double-digit growth! It sounds simple but there are great other supporting sectors of the economy that need to also be improved for agriculture to have a bigger impact. Sectors like infrastructure in terms of roads and markets as well as industries for processing the farm produce.

Agriculture can greatly contribute to poverty alleviation and food security. Poverty and unemployment are the biggest factors that make people vulnerable to human trafficking. In one fell swoop, improved agricultural practices and processes would provide employment in the rural and urban farming areas as well as lift the 80% of Kenyans who are farmers out of poverty. It would also change the perception that farming is for old men who have retired, uneducated people and rich ranchers. So as I cintinue to farm my small shamba, I will also conduct a campaign to create awareness on human trafficking and in it provide agriculture as one of the solutions to mitigate the factors of poverty and unemployment that make people vulnerable to human trafficking. This also ties in with my vision to inspire a million new farmers in Africa.   

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The Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine

On Friday March 22, 2013, I was in Kitengela to see a family friend about borrowing some of his building stones which lay in a pile on his farm adjacent to ours in Olturoto along the Kitengela-Namanga highway. He declined my request but  he gave me something more important! A piece of information that I know will change the lives of many farmers like myself. He showed me an Advert in a local daily about an Innovation Engine from @USAIDKenya that they are launching to improve the status, income and impact that Kenyan farmers have on poverty alleviation and food insecurity.

I was excited about the prospect of being part of this Innovation Engine. This is given that earlier in that same month of March, I had done a blog post on how, if I had the resources, I would equip farmers in my neighbourhood with a tractor to help them with their income and food generating activities. This is because I am passionate about inspiring a million new farmers in Africa as a solution to poverty and food insecurity and equiping groups of farmers with tractors is a nice place to start.

So I did a proposal outlining an idea that will equip farmers who are members of The Vision Self-help Group in Olturoto with a tractor. The tractor will be an income-generating asset for the group as well as act as a labour-saving technology for the women farmers who form 75% of the group's 80 members.

I am scheduled to present the idea formally at the group's monthly meeting on 7th April for it to be adopted and thus give me the greenlight to send the proposal to USAID. I look foward to being their Innovation Champion and bringing this tractor home :)

To get your hands on more information about the Innovation Engine, go to www.kfie.net

       

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Tractors and the long rains

The long rains are here and this signals the start of the planting season but like me, a lot of farmers are finding themselves not yet ready to plant. Yesterday was my day looking for a commercial tractor to plough my 3acres and the situation out there is that the tractors are so busy its hard to secure one. The problems in finding a tractor every time I have to plough is becoming a daunting task which makes me think that it would be lucrative to have a tractor for commercial purposes. This is not only convenient for me but also for all the farmers near Olturoto,Kisaju and Kitengela in dire need of tractor services. With a good and honest driver, such a venture would prove to not only be profitable but also helpful to the community. I hope to be able to purchase one myself or through a joint venture with neighbouring farmers. This will go a long way in ensuring that farmers have an easier time farming and this would make me a happy neighbour. Long live the Co-operative movement!      

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Land Rover Farming

I am currently waiting to purchase a 1968 series 3 Land Rover for my farming activities and I'm really excited about the prospect of that. First of all, its the original hardmetal body that Land Rovers are famous for, secondly its a petrol engine and unlike diesel engines, these vehicles don't have a tendency to develop severe engine troubles as they age. Thirdly, it can't get stuck in mud anywhere, its a real offroad vehicle unlike these soft SUVs and pickups we have on the road these days. The real work that I want to do with it is transport Managu (African Nightshade) to Kitengela market which is about 15Km from our farm in Olturoto near Isinya on the Kitengela-Namanga highway. We are just about getting a tractor to come and plough the 3 acre farm.

The beautiful thing about Managu as an indigenous vegetable is that it takes a month to mature. It needs irrigating and since there is a borehole in the farm next door, we are laying down pipes to connect our farm to the water grid. The last crop I had -which was technically my first crop- was Dengu (Green Grams) but these were stunted during the growth stage due to a shortage of rain in November-December last year. They had been advertised as drought tolerant but that turned out not to be so.

Being a new young farmer, I know I still have a lot to learn about farming so I take this dissapointment as a lesson. Despite the loss, I am re-investing myself again into the farming big time. I'm going in hard just like the 1968 Land Rover which is still on the road 45 years later. Even when things don't work out the first time, never give up, always keep going!

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My Article in HortFresh Journal

I had earlier posted photos of my article titled "Youthful Ambition" but here is the link to the article in full. http://hortfreshjournal.com/editorial_opinion/opinion9.htm Enjoy it and share it with a friends or frenemies :)

Disappointment

Disapppointment is a pretty powerful emotion that can even render you immobile and make you quit. Disappointment comes when we don't get the results that we expected and thus frustration rides in as if on cue. Its been a dry season and the short rains didn't come as I had expected. This in turn has denied my crop of Green Grams (Dengu) the much needed water at this half-way point in their growth. The crop has thus been stunted and unless it rains well in Kitengela soon, I am afraid I won't have enough harvest to cover my costs. The Green Grams had been advertised as drought tolerant but it seems that this drought has outrun them.

This however being only my first crop, I can't afford to be discouraged. I have known from the start that I could get burnt and the best thing to do from here is to learn from this occurrence. The major lesson here is that rain-fed agriculture is the reason we are perenially hungry and for any serious farmer, irrigation has to be the ultimate option. I will thus have to set up a proper irrigation system before the next crop. The good thing about our farm is that there is a borehole on the farm adjacent and the owner is a family friend and has given us the go ahead to tap water from his borehole. I was thinking of planting water melons for the next season but I was advised that if the melons -which mature in three months- are harvested during the april long rains, they will run the risk of getting damaged by the wet weather. I am weighing my options and one of them is Dania (not sure of their English name but they are used as food seasoning along with onions).

Like I was saying earlier, this disappointment is a mere speed bump on the road that doesn't give me the luxury to sit around and mope. From here on, I'm rolling up my sleeves again and its the pedal to the metal. Im going hard!  And on that rejuvenated note, I send you seasons greetings, Happy Holidays.

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Youthful Ambition

I have decided to title this blog post after my article in the November issue of Hortfresh Journal, a horticultural Magazine (pictured).

I am really excited about this accomplishment because I was invited to write the Editorial opinion on page 1 of the magazine. This is such an honour because other than exercising my journalism muscle, I am also flexing my farming muscles. Farming is a very new venture for me and I have made it my personal mission to attract a million young people into farming. Through a platform like Hortfresh Journal, I see my goal beginning to become visible in the distance. A big thank you to the editorial team led by Joseph Karanja. To get yourself a copy of Hortfresh Journal for 250bob, talk to Carol on 0752-007253 or 0723-308725 or go to www.hortfreshjournal.com for leads in Horticulture. 

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I see Dengu People (Dead People), #Mulla

Last week on Friday, I embarked on the highly tideous and back-breaking affair of planting the dengu (Green Grams) that I got from USAID through their agricultural contractor Fintrac. Fintrac is in charge of the Kenya Horticultural Competitiveness project which aims to increase food production in Kenya. @USAIDKenya sort of wanted to tackle food shortage not by giving food aid but by ensuring that there is enough food being grown locally. It's kind of treating the root causes of famine rather than bandaging the symptoms every year.

I travelled to Machakos Town to the Dryland Seed Company which is one of the outlets that have KEPHIS approved seeds. I picked 15Kgs of the N26 variety which is drought tolerant. I have been planting it since then with the help of local mamas (women) here in Olturuto, Kitengela. Its from these ladies that I learnt that the art of planting was traditionally designated as a woman's job. Good thing gender roles are getting kinda blurred so I can plant in my own farm. There is something Spiritual about putting seeds in the soil, I feel it everyday as I plant. I guess its because as a farmer, you are trusting the soil and the rain to make something out of a tiny seed. Its that tiny seed that holds the blueprint to an entire foliage that will produce flowers and eventually seeds that will be the harvest. That's creation at it's most basic.

This dengu variety takes 65 days to mature, that's just 2 months and five days. Right now we're almost done planting two out of the three acres. I can only say that farming is turning out to be an awesome experience. Today on Twitter, I saw the hashtag #IAmKenyanBecause, started by @Uongozi254 and they wanted to know why we think we are Kenyan and my response was; " #IamKenyanBecause I'm doing what 80% of Kenyans do, #Farming, so that we don't do a #Kenyans4Kenya again."
 

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Kenya Power denies farmers power

The Kenya Power, Nairobi South zone, Kitengela Office has since May 2011 denied farmers electricity despite having paid for connection fees. Having applied for electricity under the Ref. No. E21432011040161, over 15 farmers are yet to be connected to the main grid up to date. This is in Olturuto shopping center which is 4Km off the main Kitengela-Namanga Road from the Kenchic Breeding Farm, and about 500 meters from Kuresoi M.P. Zakayo Cheruiyot’s farm. The way leave officer at the Kitengela office Mr. Osman uses the excuse that there is no way leave for the electricity poles to be erected but a new 3-phase line was identified from which to tap power. Before this excuse, the office had earlier claimed that we are over the minimum distance of 900 meters (OD) but that is also not true. This delay has angered residents so much that there are plans to do a public demonstration in Olturuto. The KBC T.V. Kitengela field journalist as well as NTV and Citizen T.V. Journalists have been informed of this protest against Kenya Power and will be coming to cover it. Some headway has been made though through the identification of an alternate route to use to bring power, being spearheaded by Eng. Joshua Mwangi but that is taking too long to be effected angering residents even more. Numerous complaints have already been lodged with Kenya Power by the residents including the most recent one under ref. no. 504936. We have already paid over KShs. 65,000 and we want electricity to pump water for irrigation, farm and build this nation. These connections will actually help Kenya Power achieve its annual target of 300,000 new connections. Its already been a year and a half, how much longer should we have to wait for electricity?

Prezzo rocking the One 'Swagger Farmers' Tees

Prezzo joined the One Campaign and designed T-shirts for the campaign which he is doing free of charge as part of his philanthropic drive to use his African stardom to bring attention to hunger, malnutrition and poverty. I am glad to also state my ambition to entice One Million young people like myself into farming. I am doing this using my skills as a journalist to write about my experiences as a young new famer through lifestyle articles that seek to romanticize the concept of farming. Farming is being taken up by youth as a wealth creation tool as well as for ensuring food security. To read more about Prezzo's Swagger Farmer campaign and Tees, go to the African Blog on http://one.org

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We are all winners

I've just passed by a group of sheep and I noticed that the offspring -five kids, were trying to conquer a small molehill. Each one wanted to be on top by trying to push the others off the molehill with its head.

We live in a world where winner takes all and this necessitates a cut-throat competitive culture that I consider unhealthy. Ever since primary school, I have not been a big fan of competition. I don't watch the English Premier league or follow the Kenyan League either, I don't see the sense really. I never did participate in sports much in high school either. I believe that we can all win.

Now I know that sounds lofty and some might even say wussy, but unlike in war, I believe that in life there can be win-win scenarios. All it takes is bigger men and women coming together and realizing that there is more than enough. There are more than enough resources for us all. Rich people dont have to hoard everything, live and let live. Now I'm not advocating for the rich to give away their money, although that would be good, neither am I preaching communism. I just think that the world needs a little bit more spiritualism.

Now, this is different from religionism in that spiritualism says that we are all connected, all small pieces of one big jigsaw puzzle, and that my part is connected to other people's parts, and their parts connected to mine. And so their fate is my fate and my fate is their fate. None of us can do this alone. Some will be buyers and others sellers, some will be employers and others employees, we all need each other and hence each person is valuable in that way. So let's recognize this truth that we are one and there really is no need to put others down for you to win, for we can all win. The podium is big enough for us all. Heck it's so big that even our latest scientific telescopes cannot see the end of it. Thats our podium, the entire universe.         

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A Million New Young Farmers

I will start this post with Busta Rhymes and T-pain on their Hustlers' Anthem track where T-pain sings the hook like "I keep hustling dough, yea, yea, yea". This is what I have set out to do. And its not just about hustling dough, but I also want to start a campaign to get a million new young people interested in and involved in farming as their main-stay or side-hustle.

Farming has mostly been viewed as a retirees' pass time activity or a rich ranchers' sport. My plan is to make it an initiative for young people just like me. I want to get young people excited about the prospect of farming, because it is. I am writing about my awesome and sometimes not so awesome experiences as a young new farmer in Kitengela and I am pushing to have these lifestyle feature articles published in weekend editions of newspapers or magazines and in my blog, FB and Twitter pages. I am also talking to companies involved in agribusiness to bankroll a guerilla persuasion campaign that will get the youth into farming. I am even willing to sacrifice my image and privacy to this campaign (hehe). I have done some mock-up ads of how the campaign visuals will look like. I also want to promote the concept of Agritourism through farm-stays. I have an image of a two bedroom house on one corner of the farm, a seperate kitchen, washrooms with the flushing feature, two or four round huts for guests with two beds each. The huts will be used to house farming enthusiasts and people interested in farming. I can just see the homestead from where I am seated on an old beehive at the corner of the farm.

The other attractions will be the four zebras and two gazelles with their young ones that roam near the farm. I always see young boys chasing those gazelles but can never get close to them. The mzee caretaker at the farm also tells me that within a half day's walk south of here, there are wildbeasts and ostriches. I didn't know that!

Our grandparents used to farm, now its our time to farm - its a case of 'same hustle, different age'. I'm looking at the west side of the farm and noticing the acacia trees near the seasonal river 500 meters from the edge of the farm, I realize that we can have camping gear set up under those trees. The fifty acres that belong to the mzee who sold us the three acres can also be used for paintball games. All in all, the list of what can be done here is endless. By the way, today is the start of the ASK Nairobi trade fair- the Holy Grail of farming, I hope to attend before the last day on Sunday, see you there. I am now focussed on farming as my main-hustle and I want to entice you to be a part-time/ full-time farmer or as Friends of Farmers, will you join me as a brand ambassador, follow this blog through the button on the right and share this page as a Friend of Farmers.

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The Dead Dove

I woke up this morning to find a dead dove near my door and I couldn’t help but feel sad about it. I picked it up with a polythene paper bag and threw it into the fields. Immediately, some blue and yellow birds began circling over it. They would fly over it, pause in mid-flight and then proceed on. It’s like they were mourning for it, paying their respects. Either that or they were realizing that it’s a dead bird and they don’t eat those. These are the cycles we go through in life; birth, death and everything in between. These cycles remind me of a conversation I had with my brother yesterday and he was pointing out that he has noticed that people go through cycles of depression. These cyclical bouts of depression are like a hereditary curse that gets passed on from parents to their children. They (the cycles) in a way become trans-generational. Yes, there are times when we are up and other times when we are down, but could this be true? Just like the dove that was up in the air one minute and down on the ground the next. And if these cycles affect us, how can we avoid them, and if that’s not possible, how can we survive through them without succumbing to their numbing powers?

Life is Good

My good friends over at LG say that Life is good and I couldn’t agree with them more. As I seat here in a plastic chair at my door, reading a book by Kathryn Kuhlman, I can’t help but feel the serenity and appreciate the awareness, something within me, it knows me, and it knows the Universe. Looking out to my right, I see vast flat land dotted with green trees and brown savannah grass with hills in the distance. I appreciate the fact that we own three acres of this vast untapped land in Kitengela and I’m getting ready to tap it. As I type this out, I am literally waiting for a neighbour’s tractor to come over and start to plough up the three acres, picking up from where I left off. Life is interesting in many ways. To think that I was that little kid who had been screwed over by life when my folks decided to quit their marriage, and to now see how far I have come that it doesn’t define me anymore. I had a candid one with the caretaker Mzee (my elder) here at the farm and I found out that he had the same background. The difference is that I don’t think he’s even processed it much or even talked about it. I could see his eyes water as he narrated to me his story. It’s then that I realized that poetry might have just saved me. At the beginning, my poetry was an outlet for all those bottled up emotions from childhood. I let them breathe, I let them free through poetry and it really loosened me up. On the outside, I may seem like the same guy but deep within, there is a lot that I let go, a lot that I forgave, and a lot that I processed. Now I am whole, and despite the fact that I don’t want kids of my own, I think I turned out okay. I am at peace with myself, with my life and things are really opening up for me in a big way. The rain clouds in the horizon are giving birth to showers of wealth. I am deeply spiritual and in-tune with myself. I feel successful, I feel connected, I feel independent, and I feel that freedom. There are many things that I haven’t done, but I am glad that I have loved, loved myself. I appreciate this far that life has brought me and I recognize that life is yet to take me to the Heavens. Life is good, and it will continue to be so. That much I know.

Adaptive Advantage

Yesterday morning I photographed a slightly strange use of what is around you to accomplish at task. The farm caretaker here in Kitengela wanted to wash one of his heavier blankets but the small bucket and basin available to him were insufficient to achieve this goal. So he resourcefully looked around and the first thing he found that he could use was a wheelbarrow. That’s right, you did not misread it, and neither did I use the wrong noun. He used a wheelbarrow! Looking at it critically, the wheelbarrow has a large surface area and the depth needed to fully submerge the heavy blanket. It is also well fabricated in that it doesn’t have any leaking points. So he pulled up the hose pipe and filled it up with water and detergent. The trait of being able to think on the spot and creatively use whatever resources are around you to accomplish a stated goal is to me a component of Adaptive Advantage. In the business world, it also encompasses being able to observe market trends, predict changes in consumer behaviour and technological advancements and change early enough to take advantage of them. The example of Sony and Samsung is a perfect depiction of adaptive advantage. For the longest time, Sony was a world leader in consumer electronics like T.V. sets, gaming stations and various other electrical appliances. At the time, Samsung was dragging behind in the shadows. But over the last few years, Samsung has been able to predict that the Smartphone and Tablet markets would be huge growth areas and it invested heavily in these nifty new devices. It also utilized the Open Source Android Operating system as a platform for its devices. Right now, Samsung is the world leader in the Smartphone market edging out even Apple Inc. Last I heard, Apple was trying to get certain Samsung phones banned from sale in the US. Talk about scaring the competition stiff! This ability to think in new directions and adapt easily to new environments is actually what has brought me into farming. I had been writing research papers online and doing poetry, but now that I am farming, I am writing lifestyle articles about my experiences as a new young farmer and hopefully this will help me reach young non-farmers and entice them to join me in soiling their hands. The Ministry of Agriculture is also working towards getting young people into farming as a wealth creation tool for themselves and to enhance food security. Farming magazines are also trying to gain that new young farmer as part of their readership because these are the future. And so, by using my journalism training to write about my experiences as a new young farmer, I am connecting the dots between fellow youth, the Ministry of Agriculture and the farming magazine industry. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. My brother calls it Adaptive Advantage. I think it’s a Miracle!

Tomboys

We have around 60 goats and sheep here on the farm in Kitengela and that’s pretty wealthy by local Maasai standards. I say this because one of the locals exchanged his car for 30 goats. Well, there were extenuating circumstances because he had sold part of his shamba (land) and bought the car and then went on to squander the rest of the money. When there was nothing left and he couldn’t even fuel the car, he decided to ‘trade it in’ for 30 goats. There needs to be a lot of financial education to Maasai’s who are selling their land in Kitengela like its Christmas. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, every morning we open the shed door and let out the sheep and the goats. They sleep together in one big shed but once they get out in the morning, the sheep go their own way and the goats go their own way to graze in the 40 acres that have grass. It’s not so different with people; girls usually hang out in groups of other girls and the guys hang out with other guys. But there is always that one girl who likes to hang out with the boys. If you’re her, you’re probably running in your mind all the reasons why you don’t like hanging out with girly girls, and why you don’t watch Alejandro or wouldn’t cry just because he kissed Camilla. Most tomboys grow up in family settings where there are all boys and she’s the only girl in the family and so she tends to behave like her brothers. However, she will usually outgrow the tomboy status when her body begins to change and she can no longer hide her new features even when she wears baggy clothes. And in any case, skinny jeans are making it hard for her to dress like that and hang out with the boys who themselves aren’t wearing baggy clothes anymore. So she is slowly being forced into accepting her femininity as she matures and therein lies the struggle with a mini-identity crisis on whether to wear minis or not. There are also those awkward moments when the tomboy likes one of the boys or one of the boys likes her and neither may act on that longing because it will mess with the group dynamics, and it still does even when both or either denies existence of such feelings. The bottom line is that as much as the sheep wants to hang out with the goats, it will still be looked on as a sheep. But she is always welcome to graze with the goats as long as she is ready for when the awkward shows up, because it always does.