Agricultural Entrepreneurship Incubator – Telephone Farmers Project

The general objective of this project is to improve the agri-business climate in Kenya by fostering profitable agribusiness models. Three specific objectives of the project were:

1. To contribute to food security in Kenya by increasing commercial food production
2. To increase agricultural land use productivity
3. Investments in sustainable value chains through access and opportunities for Dutch expertise, goods and investments 

The rationale of the proposal focuses on increased food-security by making more productive use of arable land what is often laying idle or not utilized to the maximum. Arable land is often in the hands of individuals who inherited the land or sometimes bought the land but are willing to use the land to the benefit of agricultural production but are not able to utilize it to the full extent. These individuals are often not trained farmers but work in government, business or elsewhere in Kenya. But owning farm land provides status and another way of showing success. But in order to do so, more training and mentoring is required. Certain telephone farmers are not so unsuccessful but experiences show that even those with already having a stable turnover could being assisted much more according to Latia and Strathmore and is based on the past experience they have in this field.

The project focused on eight components:

1. Concept improvement/ development of the “incubation – the model farm activities
2. Selection of farm operators and farm investors
3. Curriculum development and review for farm operators and farm investors
4. Training of technical and business skills/ knowledge to farm operators and investors
5. Business plan support
6. Mentoring and Coaching
7. Marketing and facilitation linking to technology aspects
8. Dissemination and tech