Farming now a fertile career choice
NAIROBI — Kenya’s jobless graduates are turning to the farming sector as demand for produce rises amid a fastgrowing population.
Previously, young people tended to seeking employment in agribusiness only after failing to get white-collar jobs. Now, many are going into farming straight from university.
Part of the reason for the shift is that unemployment in the East African nation stands at 40 percent, according to the World Bank.
At least 10,000 graduates from the more than 70 universities in the country are getting into the job market each year, but with the economy growing sluggishly at about 5 percent in recent years, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, jobs are hard to come by.
“I started growing courgettes while still in university and haven’t stopped two years after graduating,” Martin Musau, a resident of Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi, said on Tuesday.
The political science graduate is yet to get a white-collar job but he is not feeling the heat as the crops that mature in three months earn him a steady income.
“I am comfortable financially even as I look for a job and hope to get one soon but it does not bother me much,” he said.
Musau, who grows and sells courgettes to retailers and directly to consumers, added: “I am lucky that I got a market at a vegetable store in Westlands (in the capital Nairobi). I supply them with 40 kg twice a week,” he said.
Like many other young graduates, Musau said he could not sit and wait for a job but was helped by his parents, who allowed him to use their land.
Steve Amugune, 27, graduated three years ago with a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in Kiswahili and religious education.
“I taught for six months at a private school and quit after realizing the pay was so little, and the government takes years to employ teachers. I used my savings to go into the broiler (chicken) business,” he said.
He runs his chicken business and grows traditional vegetables on a leased halfacre in Korompoi, Kajiado County.
“I supply my broilers to hotels in Kitengela, Isinya and Kajiado towns at $3 each. The business is good because the birds mature in five weeks,” he said.
According to him, there is an insatiable market for farm produce in urban areas and he says agribusiness owners cannot go wrong as long as they manage to tame pests and diseases.
“Traders come for my amaranth, cow peas and jute mallow vegetables on the farm. There is a ready market for the produce in neighboring towns,” he said.
As they venture into agribusiness, the graduates are also creating employment for other people and acting as role models to others.
“I have inspired at least five of my friends who were jobless to go into agribusiness after they saw I was reaping from it,” said Joash Kirui, a biological science graduate who grows mushrooms in Kiambu on the outskirts of Nairobi.