December 23, 2021

Challenges faced in creating opportunities for youths to venture into seedling propagation

Fresh Produce

Kenya

In the second part of this blog series, we highlight challenges faced while pioneering seedling propagation with the youth in the vegetable partnership in Kenya. Read the 1st part here

In Kimana, Oloitoktok District, Kajiado County, vegetable production plays an important role in the lives of farmers. Like most parts of rural Africa, farming in this region is mainly done by (aging) smallholder farmers, who own an average of 2-4 acres of farmland. For vegetable producers in this region, the main challenge is access to quality farm inputs, especially quality hybrid seeds and seedlings. Raising healthy seedlings is a tedious and delicate process. They require a lot of care and the right conditions to ensure a proper germination rate. Failure to professionally propagate often results in poor or erratic seedlings, resulting in huge losses to farmers. With this in mind, vegetable farmers in Oloitoktok prefer to outsource, as opposed to taking the risk to raise the seedlings themselves. However, access to quality, hybrid seedlings is not easy. Farmers have to travel over 400 kilometers to a neighboring county where there is consistent availability of the seedlings.

It takes about one full day to transport the seedlings, significantly increasing the cost of production due to transportation costs. In addition, this poses a risk to the seedlings' survival rate due to possible transplanting and transportation shocks.

With this background, the Neighbourhood Freshmart Ltd (NFL)-2SCALE partnership identified that there was a business opportunity in seedling propagation in Oloitoktok. The viability of this business was evident, driven by the high demand for seedlings from farmers all year round. To promote inclusivity, youths were identified as a potential group for this activity. Setting up a seedling propagation unit requires barely 1/8 hectare piece of land, making it a business the youth can engage in despite the challenge of access to sizeable farmland.

The selection of youth to participate in the activity was done with the support of agriculture cooperatives in the region. After a series of sensitization sessions on the business idea, three youth groups namely, Success, Supreme, and Mama Mboga were selected to pioneer the activity. They had a membership of 34, 17, and 16 youths respectively.

Training on seedling propagation and nursery management

Each group selected four members to attend a one-week technical training on seedling propagation and nursery management in a seedling propagation business - Grace Rock Farms, Kiambu County. Upon successful completion of the training, these four would then train the other members.

Facilitated by 2SCALE through a business support service provider, CropCare Technologies Ltd, the training focused on all the essential processes required to successfully set up and run a seedling propagation unit. These include nursery table construction, coco peat treatment, seeding techniques, appropriate watering of the seedlings, germination count, crop protection, and nursery hygiene. They were also trained on customer service, record keeping, and pricing.

To complement the intense training, the partnership provided onion and tomatoes seeds, as well as the necessary material required to set up a modern seedling nursery/ propagation unit.

Putting theory into practice; an uphill task

Immediately after the training, one of the youth groups-Mama Mboga- dropped out. The member’s expected to be paid a daily wage as part of the support to be provided by 2SCALE in raising their pilot seedlings. This was despite a clear agreement in the beginning that their contribution to the business opportunity was their time and labor in raising the seedlings. They compared the opportunity with casual jobs that pay a daily wage and wanted a similar incentive for them not to be pulled into daily casual jobs.

Success and Supreme youth groups started the seedling propagation enterprise, putting into practice what they had learned during the training. They successfully set up propagation units for tomatoes and onions and achieved a commendable 70% germination rate.

However, despite the promising progress, the first challenge was in translating the technical skills learned into practice. The two groups wrongly sprayed a pesticide that led to the death of up to 80% of the surviving seedlings. Since the groups were new, there were internal challenges in sharing of roles to take care of the seedlings. This led to some members overworking and demanding to be paid a daily wage before the seedlings were sold. Unfortunately, the internal wrangles in the group could not be overcome and some members abandoned the project and went on separate ways to implement individual projects. A few members remained interested and sought 2SCALE to support them to restart the enterprise.

Having not provided a solution to the increasing demand for quality seedlings by farmers, the 2SCALE youth inclusion team decided to change the approach and focus on individual youths with self-drive and initiative to uptake seed propagation as a business. Three young people from seeing the potential in the businesses started by the groups went ahead to set up their ventures and requested 2SCALE for support. This process is underway with a focus on selecting the right members for the group as well as having their commitments and contributions upfront before 2SCALE can provide further support.

Seedling propagation remains a viable business case in the region. However, supporting youth entrepreneurship still faces challenges such as limited business acumen, low resilience, and competing opportunities for quick cash as opposed to slow, sustainable growth. These challenges contributed to the failures of some of the youth groups supported by 2SCALE in this partnership.

While it is disappointing to experience such obstacles during project implementation, it provided valuable insights on how to implement such youth-led activities.

In the last part of this blog series, we will highlight on the success of changing the approach and building the novelty of this youth-led activity in Oloitoktok.

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