24 Year Old Graduate Runs a One Stop Shop for Agribusiness Solutions

A new breed of graduates is realizing that the elusive white collar job is not worth chasing after all. This crop of young energetic entrepreneurs have their eyes on good money and salaries will not give them that. They have turned to agriculture.

The lingo of making a decent income is now old fashioned. The new lingo is banking big from agribusiness. Integrating traditional agriculture with new technology is the tool young graduates are using to make a tidy sum of money. These entrepreneurs are using knowledge gained from various courses at the university to create innovative products and add value to the existing products. The focus is on good agronomic practices to produce high quality yield.

John Maingi, 24 years old, is one entrepreneur with his eyes on the agricultural value chain. He identifies gaps in the value chain and creates products to fill those gaps. The IT graduate from USIU is the founder and director of Foods Africa Enterprises. The company that I would like to call a one stop shop for all your agribusiness needs.

John Maingi, Founder and Director of Foods Africa Enterprises

If you have money and no land or time, John and his team will sell agribonds to you. If you have land and no idea where to start with farming, John will offer consultancy. Or perhaps you started your project and you are stuck half way, Foods Africa Enterprises will bring you back on track. Maybe you need seedlings, fertilizer or farm equipment, John is your guy.

The innovator of agribonds

I first met John Maingi at the annual Agri-Pro Focus Network Day in Nairobi. He was exhibiting his company’s products and the term agribonds caught my attention. I had to probe further being the blogger I am.

“Agribonds is a new product in the market. It target executives in the corporate world who have the money but no time and/or no land to get into agribusiness” explained an enthusiastic John.

In a nutshell, you give Foods Africa Enterprises your money, they invest it for you and bring you the profit. That is typically growing your money without moving a muscle. For instance, if you have Ksh. 100,000, you schedule a meeting with Mr. Maingi and his team. At the meeting you will be advised on the best crop to grow depending on the season and market. After agreeing on how to share profits, the work begins. Foods Africa takes care of land hiring, seeds, water, harvesting and even selling.  They keep you updated on the whole process and email you details of expenditure. After harvesting, you get back your initial capital and a profit.

Agribonds is just one of the innovative products that Foods Africa has in its array of innovative products. John and his team process and package pure honey from Kitui. They supply chicken, rabbit meat, turkey and, quail eggs and meat. They also supply fresh high quality cereals and vegetables to Veg Pro, Nameelok Group of Hotels, Fresh and Juicy among other companies.

Foods Africa emphasizes on high quality produce

Quality is uncompromised at Foods Africa. John has quality control team at his company that ensures each produce is of the best quality. I noticed John’s keen eye and attention to quality when we were at one of his client’s green house project in Ruai, where I conducted the interview for this post. In the middle of the conversation, John would reach out for a capsicum tree and comment about the leaves and flowers. He would quickly identify areas of the green house that required more attention. He can easily pass for an agronomist with his easy interaction with crops. He tells me he has learnt all he knows about crops out of interest.

Humble beginnings

Foods Africa Enterprises is 5 years old. It was conceived in 2009. John set up a small green house at his home 5 years ago. The project was a success and that pushed him to expand the green house. Soon John’s neighbours were interested in green house farming and they quickly picked it up. In no time, there was too much produce and no market or at times the market was flooded.

Entrepreneurship is about strategically positioning a service or product once opportunity strikes. John realised that a link was missing between farmers and the market. He started collecting produce from neighbouring farmers to increase his yield and supplying it on large scale. The demand for produce grew and he had to supply beyond his neighbourhood to other regions in Kenya. It became necessary at this stage to operate a business entity as opposed to operating as an individual. That is how Foods Africa was born.

Entrepreneurship is all about strategy

Mr. Maingi attending to one of his clients, Ms. Linda Atambitsa

“You’ve got to think outside the box,” is a phrase that John kept quoting during the interview. He has mastered the art of packaging products and services that are market oriented.

For instance, there is an avalanche for quail farming at the moment. These farmers require cages, licences, incubators, fertilized eggs or chicks to get started. Foods Africa provides these products and also trains new farmers on how to rear these valuable birds. As the director of Foods Africa Enterprises, I gotta say, John Maingi has a knack for thinking outside the box.

Sort Your Kitchen Garbage for a Decent Income

What happens to all the garbage from your kitchen? How much do you pay garbage services every month to dispose waste from your house? Three sassy ladies, Millicent Mwihaki, Eunice Wambura and Fidelis Wangechi make money from kitchen waste that no one thinks about.

From left to right: Millicent Mwihaki, Fidelis Wangechi and Eunice Wambura

Today, human life is constantly threatened by chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart diseases. Health and medical pundits have narrowed down the cause for these diseases to one term, lifestyle. As my gym instructor likes to say, what you eat is what you fit.  How then do you fight these life threatening diseases? Organic food is the answer. It is free from inorganic fertilizer and pesticide residues.

All things organic

The buzz for all things organic has created numerous opportunities in the organic value chain where young enterpreneurs can benefit. In the organic farming value chain there are untapped markets in soil tillage, bio fertilizers, bio pesticides and marketing. Agripreneurs have an opportunity to do the dirty and reap big.

Red wigglers (Eisenia Fetida)

Millicent, Eunice and Fidelis found an untapped area in organic farming. They formed a group by the name Young Mkulima Self Help Group. They breed red wigglers or red earth worms that produce vermi compost and vermi juice. Vermi compost is a bio fertiliser used in organic farming. Vermi juice is used as top dressing for crops. 1 kg of red earthworms goes for Ksh. 2500. The worms take 4 weeks to breed and they multiply at an extremely high rate. The ladies also make extra money from vermi juice that goes for Ksh. 500 a litre.

Agriculture is not all dirt

When I first met Millicent, the team leader, her nails were neatly manicured, her make up was intact and her chic dressing described her nothing as a farmer. She looked like a business lady ready to sign a deal any time. She is a graduate of Kenyatta University. I was waiting for her to introduce me to a farm hand who helps the team with the worms business.

To my rude surprise there was no farm hand. Millicent introduced me to the Young Mkulima team: Fidelis the group secretary and Eunice the group treasurer. The three chic ladies do the work themselves. They get worms for Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). They place them in a worm bin. The bin has to be prepared before putting in the worms. Key materials required to prepare for breeding worms are: ballast, moist organic waste, a gunny bag and some dry grass for mulching.

Young Mkulima's worm bin

How to the group breeds red wigglers

Step 1. Make a small hole in at the bottom of the plastic bin. Fix a small pipe at the hole to drain the vermi juice; the excess water that drains out from the organic foods.

Step 2. Put ballast in the worm bin. Let it settle at the bottom of the container. The ballast drains out and sieves the excess water that forms vermi juice.

Step 3. Place a gunny bag on top of the ballast.

Red wigglers feeding on organic waste

Step 4. Put in your worms. You could start off with 1 kg to learn the craft.

Step 5. Pour in the organic waste for the worms to feed on.

Step 6.  Keep watering the bin regularly. You could use the water used to clean dishes from you kitchen.

Step 7. Place the mulching on the bin to insulate it. Red wigglers do not like sunlight. They will crawl to the bottom of the bin to run from sunlight if they are exposed to too much sunlight.

Step 8. Keep watering your bin to ensure the organic waste is moist at least once a day and constantly add organic waste to the bin.

Harvesting worms and worm juice

The target market for Millicent’s group is organic farmers. Farmers buy worms to make vermi compost, a rich bio fertilizer. The ladies also sell vermi juice or worm juice that is used as top dressing for organic farming. One litre bottle of vermi juice retails at Ksh. 500.