A farmer’s effort to plant cassava in his seven-acre farm in Kakuyuni, Malindi sub-county has earned him a scholarship to go for business development training in the United Kingdom(UK). – By Ramadhan Kambi
Were it not for the Coronavirus pandemic, Rev Remus Mngumi Jaliwa of Bagio village would have taken his training between June and July this year.
However, the training has been pushed to next year where he is supposed to travel to the UK.
“An NGO called Self-help Africa visited my farm early this year and they were impressed. The organization then received a scholarship for farmers to go for Sustainable Agriculture training in the UK. They selected me for that opportunity,” said Rev Mngumi when Uzalendo News visited his farm in Malindi.
The farmer said that the course was set to start from 4th May to 10th July this year but had to be postponed to next year after the pandemic hit hard.
“The organization processed all my travelling documents and everything was ready but because of the pandemic, the journey was stopped and even the course was postponed to next year. With God wishes, then we shall go next year,” said Rev Mngumi.
The small holder farmer who retired after working for many years as an accountant at an institution in Malindi said farming pays and that he regrets to not having ventured early enough into farming.
“I can tell you for free that had I known the benefits of engaging in farming earlier, I could have quit my accountant job then. I have discovered that I wasted a lot of years working in the formal employment when an opportunity had presented itself to me. Farming pays,” he said.
Going through his vast farm in the company of her wife, Rev Ngumi urged the Kilifi county government to speed up the completion of the Cassava milling plant that is being built at Tezo in Kilifi North Sub County.
“We understand that the county is building a cassava value chain processing plant and if they can hasten its completion then it will greatly assist us as farmers. We have a lot of raw material but has no market,” he said.
Currently the crop gives him a tidy cash by selling to traders who then ferry the cassavas to markets in Kilifi, Malindi and Mombasa.
