Nairobi, Kenya
August 7, 2008
by Eustace Davie,
The Free Market Foundation
The Star (South Africa)
via
SEAMEO SEARCA
Sometimes revolution has nothing to do with politics and
everything with making lives better.
Africa's saviours are not on the benches of parliaments. They're
working in the fields, factories, shops and every other place
where goods and services are produced, processed and sold.
They labour on their own or in teams, working together from top
management down to those individuals carrying out the most
menial jobs in firms, all with a single objective: to serve
consumers.
In Kenya, people like Peter Randa, Abraham Mbugi and Gilbert
Kibiti display above-average entrepreneurial talent and are
making a significant difference in their respective fields.
Randa is a scientist with
Seminis (a division of
Monsanto), based in Nairobi. He manages horticulture
technology development in 16 East and Central African countries.
His passion is to make Kenya the foremost African producer of
tomatoes, a task he carries out with meticulous care.
He explained the technical aspects of his tomato project to the
Enterprise Africa! team when he and Mbugi, his colleague,
conducted them on a fact-finding mission to parts of the Mount
Kenya and Rift Valley regions.
The purpose of the mission was to view the activities of
smallholder farmers and their farm supply and sales outlets.
It's no easy task to select the right type of farm product to
substantially change agriculture in a country or region.
The first criterion is consumer demand. Randa homed in on
tomatoes because apparently in Kenya a meal is not a meal unless
tomatoes feature in it somewhere.
He checked all the varieties his company had developed, chose
those that looked most promising and carried out trials in
different areas of the country, pitting his company's varieties
against the best-selling ones from rival producers.
His choice was a tomato called Anna F1, which has turned out to
be his pride and joy.
He then had to convince people of the benefits of growing,
buying and eating his tomato.
Farmers had to be shown the best and cheapest way to erect the
240sq m tunnels in which to produce the fruit and shield it from
the sun and rain, where they could find the best material
suppliers, how to set up irrigation systems and how to conserve
water for irrigating.
The farmers had to be convinced that a crop produced in those
tunnels would be equal to that on a conventional 0,4 hectare
plot, require a fraction of the quantity of fertiliser,
one-tenth the amount of water and a fraction of the labour, and
continue producing tomatoes for at least 10 months, in and out
of season.
And, most important of all, that it was worth paying his company
more for Anna F1 hybrid seed than a lower price for conventional
seed.
A hundred farmers were selected, supplied with all the inputs,
and shown how to plant and tend the new tomato variety.
Then show days were held, with dignitaries and up to 2 000
people present, to demonstrate the growing crops and for
housewives to evaluate and taste the tomato.
This is how a seed company expert, utilising his knowledge and
skill, launches a new product.
Randa is well on his way to achieving his objectives: first, to
provide Kenya's smallholder farmers with a product that entails
reduced risk, less labour, lower input costs and higher profit;
second, to provide Kenyan housewives with a continuous supply of
high-quality tomatoes at reasonable prices; and third, to make
Kenya a tomato exporter instead of an importer.
Company scientists can produce and select the most appropriate
products for a specific purpose, but supply chains have to be in
place to get the inputs and information out to the farmers.
Monsanto sales executive Mbugi works closely with Randa to
ensure farmers get the seeds and product information they need
to make informed choices and produce crops successfully.
He is responsible for selling the full range of products and is
known in farming circles across the crop-farming regions of
Kenya.
Farm supply wholesale and retail outlets in the various regions
are among his most important customers, and he is in constant
contact with them.
Kibiti is the managing director of Farmers Centre Ltd in Meru,
the largest farm supply wholesaler and retailer in the region.
Farmers Centre trucks deliver supplies of seeds, fertiliser,
chemicals, spraying equipment and other supplies from a range of
suppliers to retailers in towns and villages within a 70km
radius of Meru.
According to Kibiti, the farmers in the Mount Kenya region are
more progressive and prepared to try new technology as it
becomes available.
About 70% of his maize seed customers buy hybrid seed, while 75%
buy hybrid vegetable seeds, especially cabbage seed.
Even so, he says, it requires effort to persuade farmers that
buying 2g of tomato seed for 750 Kenyan shillings to plant 240sq
m of tomatoes is a better investment than paying 900 Kenyan
shillings for 100g to plant 0,4 hectares of tomatoes.
A demonstration is the only way to convince farmers that they
will get the same quantity of tomatoes, of better quality, and
will make more money.
Along with Randa, he organised a tunnel demonstration, which was
attended by more than 1 000 people.
Products demanded by farmers have changed significantly during
the 10 years Kibiti has been in business.
Initially, 75% of the business related to coffee growing.
Now he supplies horticulture, maize, bean, coffee, potato and
dairy farmers, with horticulture and coffee being the most
important.
One of the most serious problems for Farmers Centre customers is
the price of fertiliser, which has trebled in one year, putting
it out of reach of small farmers.
People in the supply chain who bring new technologies,
information and supplies to farmers play a crucial role in
improving farmers' crop yields and reducing rural poverty and
hunger.
These people and their farming clients are among the true
saviours of Africa.
Eustace Davie is a director of the
Free Market Foundation.
He recently visited Kenya as a member of Enterprise Africa!,
which is documenting enterprise-based solutions to poverty in
Africa. |
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