Kenyan woman reaps succulent profits from watermelon

NAIROBI – While history has it that the woman is the backbone of the rural economy through agriculture, in the contemporary setting, farming is an area most young learned women would not find pleasure in given it is a strenuous activity that would automatically leave one dirty and all messed up.The mentality of the modern woman of a ‘clean profession’ that would allow her have manicure and pedicure and adorn herself in classy attire as well as adorable jewelry is nothing that Beatrice Kanyi worries about. Despite being a graduate, Kanyi says farming is the melting point of her career. “After desperately looking for a job, I decided to go back home and help my father with farm work and that’s when I developed interest in doing horticultural farming,” she says.As fate would have it, fortune landed on her way. She got a job in an organisation that supports small-scale horticultural farmers. “I got an advantage of developing my interest further when I got employed in an agricultural organization, which gives advice to small-scale farmers through capacity building using new agricultural technologies,” she explains. She says she had lofty dreams like any other educated woman, but agriculture won her heart. “I liked the way my father managed to take us to school with the money he got from farming, that made me know that there is a lot of money in farming,” she notes. Onions, cabbages and tomatoes are some of the horticultural crops Kanyi grows though on a small-scale basis. Her farm is the talk of her village in Kaimbaga, Nyandarua county. Despite the high returns she gets from her farm, watermelon remains her major venture. They fetch her higher returns than any other crop. “Melons have high returns compared to other crops and I find it easy to manage. I have also mastered its market trends, which makes it easy for me to grow it at a certain period,” she explains. Depending on the management of the farm, an acre gives her between Ksh160,000 and Ksh250,000, depending on the market with an investment of Ksh40,000. “It is encouraging when you get your money after harvesting because it gives you morale to grow more and more to raise extra income,” she states. Kanyi says farming is engaging as any other career, adding that commitment is one of the key elements to reaping such high benefits. Kanyi also says a farmer needs some form of training to be successful. She, however, attributes her success to training both by the government and agricultural organisations, saying all farmers should have monthly clinics to keep them in touch with the best farming techniques.“I attend entrepreneurship workshops and this has helped me get practical skills on production, management and marketing techniques good financial, time management, interpersonal skills,” she says. Kanyi cites self-discipline as a vital ingredient to success in farming. She says farming is one of the sectors that could provide employment to many jobless youth if well managed. Macharia Ngunjiri, who is slowly following in Kanyi’s footsteps, says he hasn’t been disappointed so far after venturing into watermelon farming. He says he first planted the crop on an acre in 2011 on trial basis, but he is now a happy watermelon farmer. Before he embarked on watermelon farming, he surveyed growing areas and what he saw convinced him to embark on the project. Ngunjiri says his first yields were impressive and since then, he has never turned back.