By Antynet Ford

Farmers in Nyandarua County who relied on middlemen at local markets are now accessing loans, organised marketing and financial services through a fully operational farmers’ SACCO that began with a simple Sh100 merry-go-round in 2016.

Machinery Ring SACCO supports farmers across several value chains including dairy, coffee, fruits and potatoes and even offers financial services to members who are no longer farming. 

Its position, said SACCO leader Waithunguri Pkaimbaga, has been built on years of patience, rising farmer trust, and gradual institutional growth from a chama to a cooperative and now to a regulated SACCO.

“It is now a complete SACCO. We can loan members, even those not directly involved in farming,” said Waithunguri.

But it began in 2016 when 50 farmers who frequently met at the market started informal meetings.

“Making farmers’ meetings is a very big hurdle. When we started, we were just creating awareness on the importance of being together as a group. We created an activity that was relevant with farmers around the area and that attracted them. It was very informal, as we just met and shared our experiences during the Chama,” he said.

But during the meetings, farmers began discussing farming challenges and opportunities, and some early leaders connected the group with networks that helped organise basic agricultural training sessions.

“The leaders back then were very visionary and were connected with other networks of people that were around us, they even started doing training sessions for the 50 chama members. With the training, as farmers we saw the relevance of being in the group. That is also when we realised the importance of being together and registered as a self-help group at the end of that year,” he said.

Those early training sessions began widening, to cover  potato varieties, fruit management and soil health, gradually changing how the farmers viewed collective action.

By the end of 2016, the group formally registered as a self-help group at the Social Services office at the sub-county level in Nyandarua after presenting their meeting minutes and drafting basic by-laws. Registration as a Community Based Organisation (CBO) took just one day.

“With the self-help group, the merry-go-round started and that made many stick together. In the merry-go-round we would buy farm equipment for each other depending on the needs raised by each farmer.”

“If someone needed a knapsack sprayer or tools, the group supported them,” said Waithunguri.

Two years later, the group introduced table banking, a move that significantly accelerated growth and strengthened members’ commitment.

“With table banking, we were giving dividends of up to Sh5,000 at the end of the year,” said Waithunguri.

“When farmers received dividends in December and then attended training in January, it became real. They saw they could earn more.”

As the group grew, some members left, while others joined.

“The group formation is a huge process. It requires knowing the people and trusting them. We started as 50 but due to trust and knowing of people, by the time we were getting to register for table banking, then later a Co-operative and then SACCO, not all of them were with us. There are those who thought that leaders then were interested in their money, others were in there for training and when they qualified they left. But eventually, there are those that we started with that remained to the end while more others came in after we were already established and successful,” he said.

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“Many people never want to risk at the formation process which takes a little more time. They are interested when the SACCO is already doing better. Again, those that join later are always serious people and most of the time, they come with experience from elsewhere and are just looking for people to join and prosper together. But also, if not taken care of, without focusing on the group vision.”

Despite the early changes in membership, the farmers remained focused and by 2018 they decided to formally register a farmers’ cooperative focused mainly on potatoes and fruits.

The next step was registering a SACCO, which required moving the process from county offices to national regulatory institutions.

“For SACCO registration, it is above the county. The Ministry and SASSRA are involved,” he said.

Cooperative officers helped the farmers draft a constitution and formal by-laws while also training members on governance, legal responsibilities and compliance requirements.

“We were taught that a cooperative is governed by law. It can sue or be sued. Auditing is mandatory,” he said. “That was a big shift from a CBO.”

The registration process required patience and financial commitment from the members.

They submitted documents to the Attorney General’s office for name search and approval, a process that took nearly three months, and each member contributed over Sh15,000 to complete the SACCO registration process.

“That was not easy. The biggest challenge was explaining to members why this was necessary and how they would benefit.”

As the SACCO grew, farmers also faced structural challenges because the original cooperative structure could not easily accommodate multiple agricultural value chains.

“Some farmers stopped potatoes and moved to dairy. Others retired from farming. New members were not fully into farming,” he said.

To address these realities, the group transitioned into a broader SACCO model that allows multiple value chains including dairy, coffee, fruits and potatoes while also admitting members who support the agricultural ecosystem even if they are not active farmers.

“The value chains grow as members buy shares,” he said.

The SACCO now provides a stable financial platform for both farmers and professionals in the community, with older farmers remaining members even after retiring.

However, he warns that political interference remains one of the biggest threats to agricultural SACCOs across the country.

“Politicians always want to control what happens in SACCOs,” he said. “Without interference, leadership thrives and guides farmers to better returns.”

Looking back, he believes the struggles during the early formation stages helped build the group’s resilience.

“Many people join when a SACCO is already doing well. But the formation stage is where character is built,” he said.

And that character has moved many in the community on from fragile and volatile livelihoods. On market days up until 2016: farmers in Nyandarua County used to show up with sacks of potatoes and fruits at the trading centre waiting for middlemen.

“There were very few buyers. You just stood there until someone called out a price. You either accepted it or carried your produce back home,” said Waithunguri.

There was little bargaining power, no organised marketing and no affordable credit for farm inputs or school fees, forcing farmers to rely on personal savings or informal borrowing.

The change to today, said Waithunguri, is a regulated SACCO that gives farmers financial support, but has also given them a stronger collective voice in the market.

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