Chief Farmer’s Update

“Over the past week, I have been overwhelmed by positive reactions and messages. Some of you have shown interest in learning more about running a commercial farm, processing products through to sales and distribution.

I will try to give you a first-hand experience of what it feels like to be on the farm moving forward. We will soon make our farm tours public to you to come for a visit and spend a night or two in our 2 — bedroom ensuite solar-powered container farmhouse for our guests or in any of our solar-powered mud houses on the farm.

Before I get into the details, I think it will be fair to let you know that our journey to large scale commercial farming started with disappointments. My agricultural adventure began in 2015 when I bought 11 cattle intending to fatten and sell as beef. I realised that most of the pieces of beef sold in the market were not the most hygienic. Unfortunately, my lead farmer was dishonest. One day, he reported that 3 of our cows had died without letting me know beforehand.

After that, I started a 15-acre corn farm. I gave it to a friend who was an expert to manage. He failed with that too. In 2017, I decided to take the journey up myself — learn and pursue the vision to change the narrative of agriculture on the continent and among the youth. That is when I started with a 5-acre pilot.

This is not intended to be a motivational story. However, one of the things I have picked up is to immerse yourself fully in whatever you want to do. I’m glad to have started with 5 acres and three smallholder farmers. Fast forward, in 2021, I’m working with 300 farmers and cultivating over 150 acres on our land, employing multiple hundreds — stay tuned. The picture below was in 2018 when we harvested our first set of 10 tonnes of rice on 2 hectares. We are now cultivating on 55 hectares. There is more ahead, more mouths and lives to change. We are just getting started. I hope you can join us by first visiting www.agrokings.io to see the products we have and maybe even become a distributor.”