For 10 years now, Fred Masinde has practised tomato and watermelon farming in the Pinnacle area of Kanduyi, Bungoma.
He rotates the two crops each planting season on his one-acre farm to reap maximum benefits.
Masinde resorted to tomatoes and watermelons after his dalliance with maize and sugarcane gave him a string of losses.
His other trade of selling clothes at the Bungoma open-air market gave him minimal returns.
Over the years, Masinde, like most farmers in the county, relied on customers who visit his home during harvesting. The clients buy his farm produce at low prices.
“Getting the market has always been a problem. As we speak if you visit any market in Bungoma, you will find one tomato selling at Sh10.
"When customers come here, be it from within or far, they want to buy a tomato at Sh5. You cannot refuse because tomatoes are not like maize. They cannot be stored as you wait for market prices to improve,” he says.
As a result, Masinde has always desired direct market access to be able to sell his produce at a favourable price.
A month ago, as he was moving up and down to attract customers to his farm, he was drawn to the loud music outside a store in Kanduyi, on the outskirts of Bungoma town.
He moved closer and saw displays of tomatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbages and traditional vegetables.
The store, referred to as Andy’s Greens, is run by four youths and provides market access to farmers in Western Kenya. Chris Mbaya, Faith Ndanyo, Ken Nyukuri and Andrew Wekunda are university graduates.
Mbaya pursued a course in hospitality management and tourism at the Cooperative University, he graduated in 2018. Wekunda is a lawyer, Faith a teacher, while Nyukuri studied business and commerce.
Masinde introduced himself as a tomato farmer and requested to know if he could supply his produce to the store. His wish was granted and every week, he now supplies 80kgs of tomatoes to the store.
At Andy’s Greens, they pay Sh50 per kg of tomatoes. That means every week, he is able to earn Sh4,000 which translates to Sh16,000 per month.
Depending on weather patterns, Masinde harvests his tomatoes twice a week. He can harvest up to 100 kgs of tomatoes weekly and with 80 kgs already taken up by Andy’s Greens, it becomes easy for him to sell the remaining 20 kgs to his other clients.
"Andy’s has given me a reason to continue working hard on my farm. Their payments are prompt,” he said.
He is now sure of a weekly profit margin of between Sh3,000 and Sh4,000, compared to his previous earnings of between Sh1,500 and Sh2,500 weekly due to inconsistencies in sales.
With the ready market, Masinde’s major challenge now lies in his rainfall dependency, unlike other farmers in other parts of the country.
“I urge the county government of Bungoma to assist farmers to carry out irrigation agriculture rather than depending on rain," he says.
“The reason why farmers in places like Mwea produce rice and tomatoes all year round is because they depend on irrigation farming.”
According to Mbaya, Andy’s Greens is the brainchild of their team leader Wekunda. Wekunda previously worked with One Acre Fund, an organisation that assists farmers to improve yields.
The store was opened in mid-2020 with an aim of giving farmers a place to sell their produce at fair prices, before being moved on to consumers.
“When we started, Wekunda had a small farm where he had planted Kunde. We used to pluck the Kunde and hawk it in town.
"Later at the height of Covid-19, we started delivering to people who reached us through our Facebook page," Mbaya said.
They soon ran out of Andrew’s stock and settled on making trips to various markets within the county, majorly Chwele market.
From his previous hustles, Wekunda had bought a van, which they used to move from one market to another in search of fresh farm produce for their clients.
However, they were not making progress as large amounts of their earnings went into fuelling the van.
This was resolved when they decided to change their mode of operation and only focus on buying produce directly from farmers.
“We ventured out for fieldwork to look for farmers and convince them to start supplying their produce to us at fair prices.
“We went as far as Mt Elgon and spoke to farmers producing various products including tomatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbage and traditional vegetables,” Ndanyo said.
Mbaya says their intention has always been to uplift the farmer while supplying fresh produce to clients.
Different organisations train farmers and provide inputs but do not train them in how to sell their produce.
“We, therefore, came in, to help farmers get a ready market," Mbaya says.
From their baby steps, they have managed to buy a lorry and employed two drivers.
The drivers pick agricultural produce from farmers, saving them the pains of transporting their produce to markets.
At Andy’s Greens, prices are favourable to both the farmer and the consumer.
For instance, they purchase a head of cabbage at Sh20 from the farmer and sell it at Sh30. In most markets, the same size of cabbage goes for up to Sh50. They buy a 100kg bag of Irish potatoes at Sh1,700 and sell it for Sh2,200.
“Our approach leans so much towards helping farmers to realise maximum benefits from their venture.
The farmers we work with are happy because, for example, those who sell potatoes know that after two to three days, we are ready to take about 70 bags from them,” Ndanyo said.
Their biggest challenge, however, is the rough terrain they have to scale when picking the produce.
“Our lorry has broken down severally because of bad roads, especially to Mt Elgon, but that does not dampen our spirits,” Mbaya said.
He agrees with Ndanyo that the store pays big time, with daily sales ranging from Sh5,000 to Sh,20,000. They can also afford to pay their salaries from the sales.
“We have employed two drivers and four people for packaging,” Ndanyo, who is also an English and Literature teacher said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)