He dreams big-that a future Bill Gates will rise from the idea of feeding the world.
By Anthony Muchoki
He dreams big-that a future Bill Gates will rise from the idea of feeding the world.
It does not matter whether it will be him or another man or woman.
“But I want it to be from Africa…. it is a question of setting yourself on the right path in offering innovative solutions that turns the immense agro-potential to marketable outputs,” Larry Keya, the founder of I-Farm, based in Eldoret, Kenya.
He is 28 years old, happily married and blessed with two children, who inspires him to do better in his endeavors. He is excited to be in Addis Ababa, it his maiden visit. And today, is the last day of AGREF 2014 that brought him here. At the African Union HQ, the skies have opened up. Rain, used wisely is always sweet for farmers. “I am a farmer heart and soul,” he says.
It is an afternoon of blessings. As he enters AU plenary hall, he is well aware that the journey, that started from a friend tagging him at face book to compete in the Africa Agribusiness Competition (@agribiz4africa) ends here.
“Whichever way, I am a winner. Reaching, here, all the learning across the way, I am very grateful for the platform. It’s a validation that I am on the right path.”
Later on he emerges one of the winners. Even as he exuberates, the young man says it is not the price money or the recognition that counts, but being on the right path, and being able to uplift others. In the last 4 years, he has won many awards and calls it a journey of learning.
From 2010, his life is the journey of a young African graduate to become an exemplary farmer in defiance to desolation of sea of white collar joblessness.
As an agriculture economics graduate and a passionate self taught computer nerd, he says his farming is both offline and online.
Offline, he has two greenhouses and works in partnership with Amiran Kenya, which he plans to expand. Online, he has a download store sokolangu.com, where he sells his own products as well as others. He uses it to sell his Guidebook on Tomato Greenhouse Farming.
Along the way, it has not been a bed of roses. “I had to learn the hard way to reduce the chances of failure.” He says, participating in completions like @agribiz4africa has gone a long way in assisted him refine his business ideas.
“You have to plan from start to finish. The end is just as important as the beginning—farmers have to learn this,” he says. Failure to think about markets before planting has been a source of woes for many, he notes.
The key to success, “make sure you are on the right path. Be patient. Test. Think market before you plant. Work with the right people and strike the right partnerships,” he whispers.
Of his future, he says they say sky is no longer the limit. “We will grow big…. But the most important thing is to inspire generations of youth to come into profitable farming and we grow together.”
End