It’s Time for Agripreneurship

In 1979 and 1984, we witnessed two of the worst droughts in Kenya. It was the first time many people ate yellow maize imported from U.S. Many rivers dried up and many people saw hunger to its extremity.

It is unbelievable that while man is exploring the outer fringes of the Universe, we are unable to deal with the most basic problem on this planet, hunger. If the rains fail, hunger stalks us. Yet man is the endowed and intelligent being in the Universe. Hunger and drought stalks us because we are true to our traditional cultures and helpless against nature. Drought is not hard to understand; after all, we are the cause, tampering with ecological cycles, disrespecting nature. The water catchment areas are well known but not protected or valued.

In Kenya, farming is neglected, unglamorous. In other nations it is a respectable profession and not for those without a choice. Professionalisation of farming ensures a higher productivity and food security. It is only recently that subsistence farmers took to building greenhouses. Why did it take so long to transfer the greenhouse technology from flowers to food that we eat daily? If hunger is to be defeated and drought subdued, we must modernise agriculture by relying less on weather which has become unpredictable. Rain-fed agriculture is the bane of Kenya’s food situation.

Drought and hunger will always come, but to deal with them we must cultivate our ingenuity and creativity. We seem to talk of entrepreneurship everywhere but not in agriculture. It’s time for agripreneurship

Bro. Lawrence K’Owiti (Katito, Kenya)