 This is the way to do it This is the way to do it This is the way to do it This is the way to do it Welcome to Youth in Action In today's program we have Robot Mutange Let's hear more about what he does Robot, welcome to the program Give us a box to report you so My name is Robot from Kisumu I'm a place called Nyaira I venture into agribusiness mainly beekeeping and poultry but my main value chain is beekeeping because of the interest I have in it so I've been doing beekeeping for three years now and it's a good venture that all the boys youths to do So how come you decided to venture into agriculture? Okay, you know when I came out of college I knew that I was going to get some formal job and you know whatever youths perceive about the formal jobs like when you get out of college you will get a big job and you drive some big vehicles over there sometimes it becomes like a dream because you get out of college and you don't get that job immediately like you expected so when I was at home I asked myself what will I do and how am I going to get money and I started doing some other things to help me get money I was doing extension services related to the course that I had studied I did fisheries and aquatic science so whatever money I was getting I was saving and I was saving had a vision that when I get some certain amount I'll start my own business so when I got like around 50,000 I asked myself what am I going to do with this money and a friend of mine told me about poultry farming and he told me that poultry has good money you can try it and I said like I don't have any modern knowledge about poultry farming he told me that don't worry I'll teach you because I've been doing this for quite a while and there are some organization that offers training to youths so I'll link you to these organizations that offer training about poultry farming and that's how my venture started so let's talk about you've said you had a different training which was fishery and aquatic science so when you got out of campus and you looked for jobs how was that experience for you? most young people are in the same shoes how did you bring it up to your parents maybe that maybe you want to venture into something else because of lack of the job actually at that time I thought that I was going to get some job in a company in Mombasa but I thought this is now the kind of job that I wanted we were called for an interview when there were only six people and I knew that an interview that you attend and you don't find so many people you have higher chances of getting the job I didn't get the job I said no I have to look for something else to do and that's when my passion in farming came in because initially I was doing some small farming and I said like I want to do it in large scale because if I do it in large scale it will lead me somewhere you've spoken about poultry and beekeeping yeah and how did you understand the science of beekeeping is it something you also trained for as you trained for the poultry one actually for beekeeping the same organizations that I used to attend their meetings we were able to get a clear picture about bee farming because actually it's beekeeping beekeeping is one of the untapped agribusiness area in Kenya because you know what people think about this because when you approach the african bee then sting you so I said this thing that people don't want to do it's what I want to venture in because I like doing what not everyone is doing I like being unique there so I said like in my area most you don't do beekeeping and I said that this is now the right thing that I should be doing because it's not flooded and I went for a training so as I went for the training I got more information from the people who have been dealing with bees for a very long time and I was also asking other people questions about bees how do you do this and that so that's how I created interest then this time I was in a meeting with the Australians and this guy gave us the real picture about beekeeping that if you do like a number of hives and you sell your honey at this amount you'll get this man and I said that what am I going to look for a formal job yet I have my own job here I can create my own job that's how I started it Agribusiness among the youth is currently taking root in society yes there are other young people who are still shunning it thinking that white collar job is the thing what can you tell such a person I should tell you to stop wasting time if you have the opportunity right now because it will not wait for you yeah so there are some things you can do as you're waiting for that formal job I'm not telling them not to go for the formal job actually you can still do your agriculture part and still do your formal job the formal job will help you to get capital to run your business so it's still okay but don't wait for the formal job yet there are other things you can do they can venture into agriculture actually right now in Africa we have an issue of food security and if you keep poultry you'll get money it's got a economic value you'll be keeping it gives people jobs and the medicinal part of bees the other things you can get from bees not just honey like you can get the venom it's medicinal for those people who are suffering from arthritis wow yeah then there's pollen it's for nutritional value it's high protein actually the pollen from bees has good protein it can be used to making babies feeds and honey also it's used to make medicine you can make soaps from it it makes it works so in bee keeping you can do so many value additions and you still get your money so it's like your own job creation interesting so in the field that you in the bee keeping and the poultry raring what activities are you involved in at that level actually right now I'm still concentrating on production normally on poultry I do hatching I sell I do three different types of poultry I keep the I keep the local chicken I keep the improved and the broilers because of the different market interest the bees I do the African bees because of the honey production they give like actually one hive can give me a minimum of 10 cages so you can imagine if you have like 20 hives and you sell your honey package at 900 shillings or a thousand shillings you got money and the harvest is not just once if there's a good net of flow you can harvest three times in a year so that's a good income so many youths can invest in this they should not fear bees you cannot face you're speaking of fearing bees but how can one approach a bee nice moment most of us are afraid of them because of that actually you've heard of this case where some people term wild animals they've they've this feature called the cognitive image like bees when you approach them all the time like during inspection they'll get used to you they'll know you yeah they know this person always comes here with the time they'll not be that aggressive when you go to that wild bee in the bush there you approach it they'll attack you but the ones that you keep in the hive they know that this is our keeper is always here with us so it's not that aggressive and you don't even disturb them but to to prevent those issues of bee attack you keep them away from homesteads yeah from animals actually when they sting your cow or hose or donkey they can die from just a sting what is the importance of the work that you do actually it's a source of employment actually when I start beekeeping you can't do it alone you have to have farm help because actually you see for the beehive it's very heavy actually during harvesting you can't do it alone you need someone to help you when you employ someone you create job for them and as a source of nutrition like I said and as a source of medicine and as a source of income also so what goals did you set as you started and where are you at right now and before I started this farming I said like when I reach somewhere I'd be able to employ more people initially I started with one person now I train other people we work together and I said I'll train more people in my village even my cousins my friends if they interested they can train them because I don't want to grow alone I said like even in three years or four years I'll be able to inspire like even more than 20 youths to be doing the same thing that I'm doing because you know these things you can do with them at a certain age when it reaches some age you need to retire from it when I started this I focused on production I said like after a year or two I'll do a large scale and as I grew in this I learnt that there are so many other things you can do in it like I spoke before about value addition and I said if I can be able to produce quality product that can reach the market different markets and like when I work around the country I found my products in this too so it's not about just production but also value addition Speaking of goals you mentioned why you ventured into farming mostly was to find a job for yourself yeah yeah how has that also worked for you in the long run? it was working for me like it's money that I was looking for I can't lie about that and through my ventures actually I started beekeeping I went for the trainings and I said like if I do beekeeping alone I'll be waiting for a period of time to get that money I can do other things like I construct bee hives I sell to farmers who are interested to get some cash out of it and at gone broad like not doing only beekeeping but also helping people like somebody will tell you that there's a bee colony attacking me in my home it is in the ceiling but also do bee removals I do propagations for people at a fee so like you can transfer bees from wherever a farmer doesn't want it to a different location do you adapt some of those bees that you find there? yeah if someone fears the bees don't want them I take them to my sanctuary oh okay they are savior yeah they are savior actually people should not kill bees because they are the reason why we have our food actually the grains we are eating they are like 95% pollinators worldwide these are our greatest pollinators and they are the reason why we get our food so we should embrace keeping the bees as a source of income and also for environmental conservation and are there any other investments you're working on aside from farming or it's just solely farming that you're working on? currently it's just farming and so what is the perception of your family and friends when you told them now I'm going into farming and I want you guys to support me actually I remember there's a place I put a beehive actually it was in my intention to put that beehive there a customer had told me that I need a beehive in three days time I'll go and set it somewhere in the farm there to dry so in three days I found bees inside there and I said like this place is good for bees they can adapt here and output bees there so it took like two to three months no one would see it so my big bro was working around the compound and he saw that beehive there and he came to me he told me man this thing that you put here is very dangerous do you know bees kill people? are you able to go there by yourself? and I told him let's go he went near the beehive he walked around I told them that this is what you're supposed to do and this is not what you're supposed to do and he said like you can live with these things I told him yes but initially they feared it they'll say like somebody said that minimum child okay because when I keep bees and bees some people perceive them to be so dangerous you saw like this guy mani anashikam gwezi na nanyuki na nanyuki na umumdum kono so like they've got that perception that bees are useful like this so sorry I told him that is barbaric don't think of bees that way so the reason why you are eating and you don't know indirectly and how fulfilling is the work? you speak so passionately about it so how fulfilling is it? it's giving me cash and actually right now I don't consume sugar I use my own product there are different circles that support farmers in their day to day activities do you get that support and how do you view the health that they offer farmers? actually a lot of the circles supporting farmers but I've not been so much interested in them but with my youth groups we created something called the YASLA where we are able to do our own savings as members we can borrow from our savings and we do our ventures and there are those do's and don'ts of the group there are those rules that govern how we run our finances and that one has been helping us so much and how has it improved your farming since you started it? sometimes you won't have that capital but you need somewhere to go and get the money let's say you found a hoard of 40 beehives and maybe you didn't have that capital to start you can go there, you borrow some cash after you've executed your tender you pay it back and the good thing about it they give you the loan at a low interest so you're much comfortable and how do you navigate the challenges that you meet while doing your job? are there any challenges and how do you manage them? challenges mostly is on actually about beekeeping during the drought actually we've got a very prolonged drought and bees are really suffered because they don't get nectar and the drought also you have to provide water for them you have to feed them also so that's the most expensive part of it but it's not that expensive because it's not a everyday thing that will happen that's the most challenging then another thing bees make their honey and it's got a very good scent actually for other animals can attack your bee hive like the ants but you are able to to prevent that the honey badger can come and destroy your bee hive and when your equipment is destroyed that's a loss you'll need to look for capital to make another another challenge has been to market the product that you make you produce because actually you see like in honey production it's a mostly adulterated product in the market so you know sometimes you'll go out to the market a customer will ask you like you need to understand your customer so those are challenges too to bring this thing to the market for the farmers to for the consumers to to embrace it actually these people believe only on whatever they find in the stores in the supermarket it's a mid-less supermarket and you really see real so how do you deal with these challenges the challenges they have to be there but the also ways I try like selling my products locally I tell people to test it and to compare it with whatever they've been using before but now I see them impressing their products they know it works so actually in every business you must have a challenge but you always find way to overcome it even though it's very hard to convince some people but with the time they just adapt it then the other venture of poultry diseases has been a challenge sometimes you find you've vaccinated but that strain of the virus is stronger than the vaccine in that time when you've been vaccinated later than you knew and you find your stock led that one is bringing you down for financial because you expect like at a certain time of the month you sell these once you get some money and if they are dead you can't sell them it's a loss but you have to cope up with that for the challenges of my stock dying I involve county veterinary officers they are able to come and do some sampling and some checkups from time to time so where do you see yourself in the future doing this job actually in the next three years ought to be selling my products countrywide and even outside the country if possible so seeing that you're a young person doing such an amazing work in the farming industry what advice do you have to other young people waiting on white collar jobs that often are scarce but there is also a gap in farming industry what can you tell us about that? out time I follow youths kulema siwishamba kulema in a little in a little person in a big in a bookie busy as much as it keeps you busy food security before put up at a chiakula you'll be actually you have to be the first consumer of your product and when you consume your own product and when you consume your own product you'll be able to feed your family able to get some income and you can go out and know of your art and you can go to your home and you can get a certain age you'll be able to buy thank you so much Robert I have left the information you've given me about peace I will try not to be afraid of them kulema siwishamba as a young person embrace other gaps in the field do not rely on one job that may be scarce or may end up failing you in life this has been youth in action I am Nyongweso Grenis see you next time