My venture into agriculture

I regard an achievement as something that I am proud of doing. This is something that I am not only ready to do when I get an opportunity but also ready to create an opportunity to do it over and over. At this instance, I will share one of my great achievement that am much proud of doing and being part of.

I found myself entangled between two things, one is agriculture and the other is solving social problems like unemployment and mentoring my fellow youths. In my region, Kisumu-Ahero, there is constant practice of rice farming. This irrigation is actually the 3rd largest rice irrigation farm in Kenya. I really do not have much reason why I got great interest in agricultural activities because even in my early stages in high school I never liked agriculture and didn’t even select agriculture as one of my subjects. I guess it is due to the fact that I studied in areas where the activity was majorly done. I went to a day secondary school and everyday I could in one way or the other interact with it during holidays or weekends because my relatives practiced this type of farming. So over time I found myself in it.

On the other hand, I tend to be a problem solver and empathetic person. After we finished high school, my friends and I were trying to brainstorm on what we could do to keep ourselves busy. I proposed we go into agriculture. I proposed something I had never done but was only observing my relatives from afar but I had no clue how to actually run it. My proposal came up from the gap I saw in the agricultural sector in the area. A lot of the land was always left unutilized due to reasons such as inadequate capital to run them. This led to unemployment and idleness among people, especially the youth. They accepted my proposal.

Now I had an idea of what we wanted to do and the target was to keep us busy and promote self employment among us. The question that followed was how we would raise the money. Rice irrigation is costly and needs a lot. The total expense of running an acre that we wanted was at least Ksh.60,000. We had to think of where we would get the money and an idea popped up on me. Why don’t we start a youth group? register it and contribute money there then invest in what we wanted? This was one of the best ideas that I felt I made. We went for it and within six months we had a good amount which placed us on the right track to take a loan to boost it. That is the time Covid19 came in but for us we were set and were not idle. 

We did it and within 4 months we had harvested with a 50% profit. The group so far has grown and has attracted more youths. We are now 20 members and this year we have hired two acres of land of which we are now doing the rice irrigation. The group is called Wenyeji stars youth group and I am the treasurer. I am very proud and with the great minds that we have there, we are set for great exploits. Now, as we do other jobs or study, we have a side project that is supporting us. This is something I am proud of being a part of and I am looking forward to doing more great things together. I really thank God for bringing me to Lapid Leaders Africa because the Lead Self and Lead Marketplace pillars have influenced me to keep pushing and be the change that this generation needs. They made me realize that what I was doing was great and I should continually have a growth mindset and keep thinking out of the box.

~ Moses Ouma