M-Farm

M-Farm is a software solution and agribusiness company whose existence can be traced after the IPO48 Competition where it's overall win in the 37submitted ideas saw it  take away an estimated amount of 10,000 Euros as start up capital. Their main product is a transparent tool where farmers through an SMS to 3556, get to know the retailing market prices of products,the price of farm inputs and the price for their produce.


In a nut shell this is what they do:
i)Enable farmers to inquire current market prices of different crops from different regions and/or specific markets.
ii)Aggregate farmers needs/orders and connect them with farm input suppliers.
iii)Enable farmers to sell collectively and connect them with a ready market.


Reasons to What They do
Most farmers in rural areas gropple with issues of land productivity and scrupulous middlemen who make the search for markets for their produce a distasteful venture for them. Here is where  Mfarm  comes in to provide a virtual space where farmers can sell their produce and and buy their farm inputs on the same.


Recent Development
Word has it that M-farm is scaling to the smart phones level by  launching a new mobile application come 5th, June 2012. The mobile apps will be on Android and  Samsung and Bada mobile platform.


During the launch, Mfarm will  reveal its upgraded mobile and web features which is inclusive of a new SMS code for transparency in marketing  of agricultural commodity trading. More information on the same can be found in the Pivot East Website 


More information on the same can be obtained at their website (www.mfarm.co.ke) or on twitter  (@mfarm_ke)

My Take on Shamba Shape Up

Shamba Shape Up is a farm reality show aired in episodes on Citizen TV Kenya for 30 minutes every Saturday and Sunday.The series for the first episodes ends in June.
The show focusses on meeting the needs of the rural households in Kenya as director David Campbell puts it across.It entails a  make over for any choosen farm.Two presenters Naomi Kamau and Toni Njuguna who can be traced back to Makutano Junction Drama series sets to give expert advice on the chosen farms. This advice ranges from soil fertility issues,what seed variety to plant in a certain area, poultry care, livestock care, water harvesting methods, better storage means in order to avoid post harvest losses, bee keeping, financial planning ,disease prevention issues on solar energy.


On 15th May,Guardian Development tweeted asking for my opinion on Shamba Shape Up.Unfortunately i was on transit and i couldn't  get to reply back as soon as possible.


Congrats on the @BAKE_ke blog win @emmiewakio! We'd love to know what you think of this http://gu.com/p/37hbp/tw #globaldev#kenya #agriculture

My Take on Shamba Shape Up
In the wake of  global conferences centering on advances in agricultural research and development, lots of information fail to reach the intended person in the rural area, the farmer. These farmers rarely attend these sessions but with just watching TV and learning a lot on the above cited issues. TV in rural areas of Kenya are more spread than internet and hence a good ICT source of passing on information.This is coupled by the fact the episodes are broadcasted in Kiswahili which is an understandable language amongst many.
The TV farm make up series is a huge step to allowing good farming practices amongst the youths and old farmers. Just to demonstrate a section of recent tweets on the same click here click HERE.


Nevertheless, i figure some few what nots on my side:
i) Most of the visited lands are of small acreage and passed on through inheritance and going by the use of fertilizers advocate amongst the chosen farms,what is the sustainabillity of farming on these farms? What of advocating farming practices the like of organic farming and Permaculture?


ii) How much of the impact is felt by targetting only one farmer on the road trip? Wouldn't it be much better to focus on a wider coverage of farms so that the domino effect could be of a greater magnitude?


iii) Why do they focus only on the old generation?How about doing a makeover to schools too where children farm? This in addition to making their farms productive could give agriculture a lift as a very important course and  concept in the growth of the economy.You could help a lot in showcasing that agriculture isn't a profession of the poor,the old, the retired and hence you can mould young farmers at an early stage.


iv) My crowning worry is the sponsoring partners and what their real intentions are behind the sponsoring of the project. In the wake of genetically modified organisms,(GMOs) companies advocating for their products have been seen to hide under the umbrella of other projects that allure the eyes of the people in a way they forget what is happening beyond what they can see.More so, in my view i feel it is a channel for depedancy on toxic chemicals on the part of the farmers.A time will come when these lands can't make do without the chemicals and apparently most of these farmers operate on a small scale and finances to currently buy these chemicals and fertilizers are minimal. What is their take on this??????


All in all i love the ICT4D concept of using the TV to reach a majority of farmers in the rural confines of Kenya.


On the link below,sample videos of the episodes in the first series and you could leave your reaction in form of a comment.Thanks!
Shamba Shape Up All Episodes

Agribusiness Remains Unattractive To Kenya's Youth

Yesternight I was checking on the status of agriculture amongst Kenyan youths and i happened to stumble upon this article by Bedah Mengo written late last year, on 17th October,2011 to be specific.Despite being a bit on the 2011 side of events,i feel some concepts embedded within it relate to the present to,so i thought it wise to do a repost of it here.Read it  below Agribusiness Remains Unattractive To Kenya’s Youth Author: Bedah Mengo Date: 17 Oct 2011 Kenya is grappling with food insecurity challenges that have led to increased food imports from the neighbouring countries. Interestingly, the imports have partly been blamed for the country’s weakening currency that has caused high inflation rates. But the irony of Kenya’s food insufficiency plight is that its economy is agriculturally based and the country has vast arable land and good weather that can sustain agricultural activities. The East African nation enjoys a bi-modal distribution of rainfall. Long rains occur between March and April and short rains in October and November. Then why is Kenya importing most of its food yet it has enormous agricultural and human resources that can make it food sufficient? The answer lies in its youth, who play a minimal role in agriculture and food production. As in many other countries in Africa, agriculture is a less attractive venture for Kenyan youth, who make about half of the country’s 40 million people. Most of them are unemployed and many live in rural areas where there are huge arable lands yet they do not engage in agriculture for various reasons, chief among them lack of training and access to credit facilities. During a recent Agricultural fair in Nairobi, Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Agriculture Gideon Ndambuki noted that the youth in the country participate minimally in food production. Ndambuki said it is increasingly becoming difficult to convince the “Facebook Generation” in Kenya to take up agriculture as a business.  According to the minister, the average age of the Kenyan farmer is 55 years old, with most of them having retired from white-collar jobs. The situation is no different in other African countries grappling with food insufficiency problems, where majority of its population are people aged between 15 and 24 years. Yet agriculture is not benefitting from this energetic age- group that is a huge resource for any country. The young women and men prefer to leave rural areas to seek employment opportunities in urban areas. This has compounded problems for many nations, including Kenya, since when the youth fail to get jobs, the number of the urban poor increases and the country starts to rely on imports since it is not producing enough food. Analysts note that for Kenya and other African nations to achieve food security, youths must become critical players in the agriculture industry. But why are the youth in Kenya not taking up agriculture? According to Meshack Ambani, an agricultural extension officer with the Ministry of Agriculture in Western Kenya, a misconception exists that agriculture is for old people.  “Many people believe you are eligible to engage in agriculture only when you have retired from your job. Then, you will use your pension to buy a piece of land, buy two or three cows, and do some crop farming for your subsistence,” he says. Thus, he notes that young people will find themselves out of place when they engage in agriculture at a tender age.  “People will want to know why you doing the work of retirees. Even your ageing parents may consider you as a failure because you have not gone to the city to look for a proper job,” he says. He absolves the government from blame saying there are many projects targeting the youth in rural area started by the Ministry of Agriculture and its partners.  “We have Njaa Marufuku (Kick out hunger). This programme mainly targets youth groups in rural areas. The government was giving up to 1,000 U.S. dollars free seed capital per group to help the youth start farming projects. But people took the money and squandered it. This has slowed the programme,” he says. Thirty-four-year-old Francis Kariuki, who works in Nairobi and engages in farming in Juja, a town on the outskirts of the capital, says farming needs a lot of patience, which many Kenyan youth lack.  “When you plant, for instance, maize or tomatoes, you have to wait for several months before you can make something out of it. This is a long time that people are not willing to wait. They want quick money. Besides that, farming is less fashionable especially in Nairobi,” he says. Another reason he adds is that farming is expensive, making it out of reach for many youths, since they cannot access credit facilities.  “If you want to engage in green house farming, which appeals to the youth, you must have between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars. This is money that a bank or a micro-finance institution will not be willing to give to starters, especially when they know you are going to spend it on agriculture,” he says. He adds that banks consider agriculture a risky business venture because of erratic weather patterns and climate change. But all is not lost, Kenya government, in collaboration with its development partners, has launched various programmes to encourage the youth embrace agriculture. One of them is dubbed “Farming is Cool.” The initiative exhorts the youth to take up agribusiness through the use of green house technology. The government also set aside 880,000 dollars in this financial year, which will be used to purchase green houses for various youth groups, across the country. Through the initiative, the government hopes to bring down the average age of the Kenyan farmer from 55 to 30 by the year 2020.

The First Time My Agriculture Cause Hits the Daily

All courtesy of Evelyn Situma and  Business Daily Africa

Emmie (inset) has turned her rooftop into a garden where she uses broken containers to grow kales and cowpeas. Photos/Courtesy 

Bloggers Passion For Agriculture Blossoms

After failing to secure formal employment after her graduation, Emmie Kio Wachira, 22, opted to blog on Agriculture “to keep my passion alive.” Less than a year later, her energy has been recognised and her efforts rewarded after her blog, ‘Tracking the scent’ was named the winning agriculture blog in the just concluded BAKE (Bloggers Association of Kenya) award.

The non-monetary award has inspired her to continue blogging. “Blogging is what keeps my love for agriculture alive,” she says.

Her pet subjects include land conservation, farm-tech, food security, business opportunities and funding.

Emmie developed her resilience at Egerton University where, as a freshman, her friends discouraged her against pursuing agriculture. But her father provided the much need support; she followed her heart.

“I settled on agribusiness management,” she said. As her graduation day drew nearer, Emmie was certain that she would not take long looking for a job; after all, her contacts had promised internship opportunities.

Armed with her degree, Emmie went after her contacts but none offered her the internship they had promised. Disappointed, she resolved to create a blog to keep her passion alive as she settled for an administration job in Mombasa to make ends meet.


Continue Reading..............

And the 2012 Best Agriculture Blog in Kenya is..............

It had been an excruiting journey from the nomination to the voting process.Worse still i couldn't make it to the event due to some unavoidable circumstances.Nevertheless,i did follow the whole event remotely thanks to CapitalTV Livestream.

I still recall the happy tense moment when Larry Madowo,the MC of the event, announced the winner for the Best Agriculture Blog.It was wonderful,superb,amazing,unbelievable,sweet...name any word of your choice. Who thought Tracking The Scent would take the lead?

Tears of joy stung my eyes and as Waruiru Gachagua (My representative) took to the podium to receive the certificate on my behalf which as being presented by David Mugo of Wikimedia Kenya i shouted,i screamed, i finally believed we did it! My heartfelt thanks went out to God, My dad(the greatest farmer),my fans who voted for me,my friends Nawsheen Hosenally , Isaac Kosgei ,Antony Kahonge all who we share a youth in Agriculture passion through the social media.

David Mugo and Waruiru Gachagua

The Blogging Journey
I started blogging last year as a hobby and more so for learning new technologies. In addition, i sought it a wise venture to keep my farming passion alive after failing to get a job in the agriculture sector upon graduation from college and going by the negativity youths had towards farming in general.Little did i know a love affair was in the making.I thought why not look at better farming practices that could be replicated amongst the youths.

I believe this is just the beginning of a fruitful Youth in Agriculture campaign journey.The Emails,the messages on Facebook and DMs on twitter i receive speak volumes of how a greater percentage of young people are interested in agriculture.And with Global Unemployment rate rising, i believe agriculture will be the only satisfying profession among the Generation Y.

Thank you so much BAKE-Kenya for making blogging such a noble profession.Not forgetting my blogging mentor Wanjeri Gakuru who i met on a New Year's Eve Beach Party and is one of the pillars upon which this blog stands.Thank you all who voted in my favour and more so for giving me a chance to raise the Youth in Agriculture~Kenya  flag higher and higher.I pray i won't disappoint you.Let's keep Tracking the Scent and who knows we could be on our way to feeding the whole world before 2050 sets in!  :-)

 Aluta continua!




PS :The  BAKE Awards poster and the sponsors

CTA:Competition for ACP Journalists / Media Specialists

Deadline :10 August  2012 

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in collaboration with its national, regional and international partners is delighted to announce the launch of the 2012 African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Media Competition on value chains.

Open to all media and communication professionals from the ACP, the competition aims to encourage journalists and media specialists to investigate the challenges and opportunities for involving smallholder farmers in value chains, showcase success stories and best practices that can be replicated and raise awareness on the important role of value chains in agricultural and rural development..

The competition is being held in conjunction with the International Conference on value chains development, which will take place from 6 – 9 November 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The top six finalists will be supported to attend the conference and provide media coverage. The top three winners will be announced during the event.  Submissions are invited to discuss one or more of the following themes:

• Trends on value chain development
• Value chain innovations
• Enabling environments
• Sustainability and scaling up, and
• Capacity development

Interested candidates are invited to send in one original print or audio-visual piece in English or French to makingtheconnection@cta.int, copyingMikenga@cta.int by 10 August  2012. 

Further information on the same can be found at their their website  Making The Connection .

Good luck to those who will give it a shot.

iCow: A Dairy's Farmer Best Friend!

My recent research reveals a lot of mobile applications centered around improving the productivity of agriculture in general. And more so,many more are being developed as each day unveils. Unfortunately, they are still to go viral like their counterparts Facebook and Twitter. But on the same note, some people still don't understand what they entail. In the subsequent technology in agriculture posts, i will be taking a deeper perspective for all these applications.For a start, i begin with iCow.

 iCow is an sms and web based farmer platform or better still the first of its kind as a mobile phone calender for cows.It was developed by Green Dreams TECH Ltd with the sole purpose of targeting small scale dairy farmers to tackle issues in the cows life cycle and maximize their returns.These issues include among them, milk record keeping,management of a cow's estrus cycle,prevention of milk related diseases,calf diseases and treatment, proper nutrition among others.

In addition,it tracks each farmer's cow on an individual basis and helps keeping records of each cow. This information includes:

• A comprehensive Gestation Calendar customized to each cow based on the Date of Service (based on the AI ‘straw’ or any other known measure) and/or the Calving Date
• The Milking Calendar and customizable Milking Schedules
• The Milking Calculator
• A customizable Immunization Calendar
• Health Information Services
• Diet Information Services
• Nutrition Information Services
• Illness and Disease Information Services
• Costs of production customizable calendar and calculator
• Calf Records including gender, weight, Date of Birth, etc.

How does it work!

The practically and good thing with iCow is you DO NOT need a smartphone to operate it.Any simply phone that can send and receive texts works wonders.This helps bridge the digital divide among aged farmers as a mobile management tool.

To register for iCow, simply send the word iCow to 5024 using either your Orange,Airtel or Safaricom line.Each SMS costs Kshs 5/-

Other Instructions follow below:

1. To find a vet: Vet#county#location#

e.g vet#nakuru#njoro#

2. To find AI: AI#county#location#

e.g AI#nakuru#njoro#

3. To Register yourself: reg#farmername#county#

e.g reg#kamau#kiambu#

4. To register a cow: by insemination date: serve#cowname#inseminationdate#

e.g serve#maria#2010-04-23#

or by birth date: Birth#cowname#date of birth#

e.g birth#maria#2007-08-19#

More news on iCow is that it has been a recipient of many awards, among them the winner in apps for africa 2010.Other awards it has won can be found in their BLOG

For more information on the same check their WEBSITE

Young People and AgriFood: Small Grant Competition 2012-2013

Call for Applications
Deadline: 15 June 2012

The Future Agriculture Consortium, through its Young People and AgriFood Theme, seeks to address three constraints to more appropriate policy in relation to the “young people and agriculture” problem in Africa:

• A lack of analysis that is theoretically and historically informed, conceptually sound and context sensitive;
• A very weak base of empirical research relating to either the nature of the “problem” or the potential impacts of particular policy responses;
• A limited cadre of researchers and policy advocates who are actively working on and informed about these issues.

Continue Reading...........