Agropreneurs : Jackline Mutiso and Sylla Aisha ENG

Jackline Mutiso and Sylla Aisha: Hydroponic farming provides roots for the future

Sally Aisha and Jackline Mutiso survey their small pots of lettuce seedlings, almost ready to plant in rows across their large greenhouse in Kenya. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the two entrepreneurs were cultivating 2,300 heads of lettuce every two months, and earning up to CAD$410 (AU$430) each after deducting their costs. Now, with retailers reducing their intake, they cultivate about half as much, making on average CAD$146 (AU$153) each.

The two women had been selling clothes at the local market together when they decided to get into farming. They took out a loan to build a greenhouse, invest in the hydroponic technology, and find buyers. But at first, they couldn’t turn a profit. “Sometimes we were getting very little,” said Jackline. Then through an internet search, Jackline found the training program run by the Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Center at the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A), with funding from the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) program, and decided to enroll.

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“They helped us a lot; they gave us transport for attending the training. We learnt about financial record keeping, savings and business management; purchasing goods and putting expenses aside; balancing profit and loss. We didn’t have much knowledge but they taught us about how to run the business more effectively so we can help ourselves to repay the loan more efficiently,” Jackline said.

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But a result of the training, the duo learned to rethink the practice of getting a bank loan, which may be risky in the initial stages of starting up a business. They are now starting to think about how to save to build a new greenhouse themselves without a loan, so that they can compare repaying a loan with saving and investing. With the help of a GAME Center mentor, they have been supported in their bookkeeping and record making, which has boosted their self-esteem, giving them the confidence to continue, despite additional hardships caused by the pandemic.

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