“Welcome to my office,” he said.
A wooden seat under a banana tree in Rutara Village, Kiambu
County. This is his office. He humbly offers me the wooden seat and takes a
three legged stool for the interview. Before I finish introducing myself, his
phone rings. A client is asking for 200 day old chicks. They negotiate a quick
delivery-two weeks at most. I shoot my first question of the interview. Before
I’m done, another client calls requesting for a visit to the farm. Immediately, I learn that this branch of Wendy Farms is a hive of activity. I quickly engage
my patience gear and sit tight.
My interviewee’s mastery of the Queen’s language captivated
me. This farmer was different. He was eloquent in his English (not that other
farmers are not. This one was outstanding). I was curious. Thank heavens for
introductions. I quickly learn that he is a household name that previously
graced our screens on K24 hosting the program Najivunia. You guessed it. It is Caleb Karuga. He is the proprietor
of Wendy Farms – a group of farms in Kikuyu, Nyeri and Nanyuki.
Caleb Karuga feeding his chicken |
KARI improved indigenous chicken |
A dream nurtured from
childhood
Caleb Karuga grew up in the fertile highlands of Othaya by
the riverside. He grew up watching his grandmother toil away in the day and
serve farm fresh food in the evening. This spurred his interest in agriculture.
He even studied the subject in high school. However, in his childhood, Karuga
viewed agriculture as a punishment. It was a chore he had to do before going to
play or before doing his homework. He constantly wondered where the money
making aspect of this ‘punishment’ was.
Exposure through his
career
In search for the business in agriculture, Karuga was
inclined towards agribusiness stories in his six years as a journalist. Every
day he told stories of people making a lump sum income from agriculture and
other seemingly mundane trades. This reassured the young entrepreneur that
agriculture was the trade for him.
“Through Najivunia program that I hosted on K24, I got to
interact with many people in the agricultural value chain. I got exposed to the
business arm of agriculture. Not subsistence farming; serious agriculture that
takes into account economies of scale to break even,” avers Karuga.
Once an entrepreneur
always an entrepreneur
Caleb Karuga has always had knack for business. While
pursuing a degree in IT at the university, he registered his first company that
dealt in video production. That company landed him his lucrative journalism
career. As a practicing journalist, Karuga ran a car hire business on the side,
despite the demanding nature of his job. He later sold one of his cars from the
car hire business to venture into agribusiness.
Three chicken: The
birth of Wendy Farms Empire
The capital that Karuga got from his car hire business
financed the leasing of a piece of land in Kikuyu and the construction of pig
sheds on the farm. Having started with pig business in 2010, Karuga turned to
poultry farming after the poultry business plummeted in 2011.
“I started with three indigenous chicken that I bought from
Tala in Machakos County in 2011. I would drive 30 Kilometres from Nairobi every
day to check on my three chicken. Two hens and a cock. It took five months for
me to see the first egg. I was excited on this small achievement but I learnt
key lesson: I would need a lot of patience to see results as a farmer,” recalls
Karuga.
Strawberry beds on Wendy Farms |
Learning through
experience
The aphorism that goes, experience is the best teacher, holds
true in agriculture. Any successful business man in agriculture will quote that
saying every so often. Karuga is no different. He has grown in the past four
years to make a shy estimate of Ksh 800,000 per month as a farmer. However, his
journey has not been a rosy one. He got to this point through painful lessons
of the dos and don’ts of agribusiness.
After realising that pork business was not working for him,
Karuga dived hard for poultry business. He invested Ksh 50,000 in 500 day old
chicks only to lose 100 of them in the first month. He had to sell another 200
to mitigate losses.
He also recalls running into huge losses before discovering
the KARI improved indigenous chicken breed. He was previously buying indigenous
chicks from other farmers who were not vaccinating their chicken. Most farmers
argue that indigenous chicken are hardy birds that are immune to disease. This misconception
drove Karuga’s investment to the ground.
However, the 31 year old farmer took lessons from his losses
and got wiser with each challenge. He says that passion and resilience has
grown his business from three chicken to an empire. He hopes that Wendy Farms
will be the brand of choice for indigenous chicken in East and Central Africa
in the next five years.