I had never loved farming. I didn't even like it. But in 2022, someone convinced me I could do it. That's how I found myself, launching into chicken farming. It wasn't love at first cluck. It was more like a crash course in chaos.
So here goes Chicken farming. My first launchpad. And let me tell you Maina, character development began immediately. I still have PTSD from that escapade. But at least one thing went right: my nanny had a life of her own, for the chickens weren't a household issue. The ighoho was a blessing. That's a story for another day. And yes, I'll write about our ornamental bird shopping spree in Busia, like real businesspeople. The long night drives to Nairobi, trying to beat suffocation in the boot? Total madness.
Enters Business Idea Exhibit A: Chicken farming. Let's launch it, we have a place, a not so occupied guy to take care of our farm and not so bad financial status. Did we baseline the budget? Align on execution? Who are you raring for? People eat eggs anyway. And so, we rolled with punches. Biggest mistake. Before you dip your fingers in business, have your house in order. Or at least get a shareholding agreement. And maybe, just maybe, listen to that vocal MP before you buy 200 chicks on impulse.
We weren't doing badly off on tooling. Our first “tech” tool wasn't a drone or a fancy app it was Excel. Google Sheets. We used them to track everything:
·Every shilling spent on feed, vaccines,and fencing
·Vaccination schedules and health milestones
·Inventory of birds, and later, maize inputs
It wasn't glamorous, but it worked. Isn't that how most newbie farmers start? Before the Al buzz, there's always that one spreadsheet-color-coded,over-engineered,and deeply personal.
Exhibit B. Maybe there is still something good about farming. Well animal farming didn't do me good but probably we can try crop farming. Curiosity eventually led us to maize farming. We started with leased land,big dreams, and zero romanticism about farming.Every family buys at least a bag or a gorogoro of maize flour every other day. Same mistake repeated.
But how did we get here. You see the insatiable drive to do the little things in big way; how big the way was probably is something we missed defining. Despite the wealth of information online, we chose to trust community advice. Because in our setting, being an outlier is often mistaken for ego. And ego doesn't grow crops.
We needed to grow crops and make big money. Our first maize trial was heavily reliant on our on-ground mentor. We didn't know much about him just that he was a high-profile figure in the local farming scene. That was enough for us to trust that he'd guide us right.
Our role? Simple:
·M-Pesa the money
·Update the Excel sheet
·Tick off the task as “done”
It was farming by delegation. Here's the thing: if someone is helping you make the imaginary big money, just know, they're not doing it for free. And if you're not the one paying the cost, then who is? What's the real price?
That question lingered. It still does.
I bet I swore not to repeat the same mistake again. I was fully determined to live by the saying “The first time is a mistake, the second is a lesson, and the third is a charm." A new way of doing this had to be found. And slowly, Al became part of the journey.Not because we were techies trying to revolutionize farming, but because we were tired of losing money.
Before jumping into Al, we did what any curious farmer would do, explore what was out there. There were dozens of use cases, some exciting, some overwhelming. So we sat down, reviewed the options, and asked ourselves: What actually aligns with our farm's needs, our capacity, and our vision? From that long list, we settled on three use cases that felt practical, scalable, and relevant to our journey:
-Precision Agriculture-because we wanted to stop guessing and start measuring. As the saying goes,data is the ultimate measure of truth.
-Supply Chain Optimization-because growing maize is one thing,getting it to market is another.
-Farmer Empowerment-because knowledge, access, and confidence are just as important as tools.
These weren't just buzzwords. They were our roadmap.
You've all probably seen that meme about the CEO who desperately wants Al but has no defined goal? That wasn't us. We weren't chasing buzzwords; we were chasing clarity. We didn't become tech-savvy farmers overnight. We just wanted to stop losing money.And slowly, the spreadsheets gave way to smarter tools.
Lessons & Laughs
Al didn't just change our farm, it changed us. It taught us to trust data, but also to respect community wisdom. It showed us that growth isn't just in yields, but in mindset.
The million-dollar part? It wasn't the money. It was the journey. Character development.The madness. The spreadsheets. The birds.The boot.
And sometimes, maybe sometimes the farm chooses you.
No comments:
Post a Comment