By George Munene
For many farmers, direct consumer access is perhaps the biggest huddle to realising the best profits from agriculture. Latia farm located at Seising off the Isinya-Kiserian road, has found technology, with its capacity for instant connectivity, offers ingenious solutions to this problem.
From about 4.00 pm, David Kimwaki, an agronomist on the 60-acre farm, says, personal vehicles start streaming in. These are people on their way home from work who come to pick up everyday essentials which they have ordered. This may be, horticultural products, milk, maize that are all sourced directly from the farm and gotten from the packaging area. While the people making daily pick-ups from the farm were a sizable number, even more of the farms produce was still being sold to middlemen.
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Recognising the obvious interest from consumers in fresh off the farm produce, Stanley Ndono, the farm’s director, leveraged his background in information technology to set up an online buyer platform via WhatsApp (Latia veges and milk supply), coupled with software that tracks farm inventory and money orders. Customers have a 7.00 am to 4.00 pm window within which to order whatever they wish delivered through the farm’s WhatsApp page. Through a motorbike delivery system, they have the produce delivered to them that very same day. The farm’s client base is spread out from Athi River, Mlolongo to Syokimau.
Payment is made via M-Pesa paybill and regular customers are even granted a week’s grace payment period.
Martha Mibey, a Syokimau resident has found it a convenient and cheap alternative to the hustle of going into Nairobi markets to get her groceries; “I just have everything delivered to my house and can trust it is all garden-fresh. A litre of fresh milk costs just Sh50 compared to the Sh45 I’d pay for ½ litre of milk bought from the store.”
Set up on 7th April 2020, the group already has 64 members and is rapidly growing.
Latia farm: 0716 431054