Monthly Archives: July 2012

Agriculture Moment: VC Funding, Farmer Social Networking

Recap of recent agriculture-themed events and blogs posts

Farm blogs: The agriculture themed blog Tracking The Scent had a recent post that linked to an article by Bedah Mengo about farming being unattractive to young Kenyans.  The blog was the winner at the recent Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) in the category of  agriculture blogs and that also included several worthy competitors including Kipsizoo 

 Young Agropreneur Chronicles of a Kenyan Farmer and the Pan-African Agribusiness & Agroindustry Consortium blog.

Other recent blogs and articles of note relating to agriculture include: 

Timbuktu Chronicles had a post about going back to farming that noted Although Kenyan youths make up over 75 per cent of the country’s population, farming is not considered an attractive option. This mentality has been entrenched in the education system that traditionally dooms the academically challenged to farming, otherwise known as the ‘poor man’s profession’. As a result, according to Kenya’s agricultural ministry, the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 55. However, the tide is beginning to turn.

The blog How We Made it in Africa highlighted nine agribusiness opportunities including fruit juices, cassava, soya bean, sorghum (replacing barley in Kenyan beer) vegetables, milk, and equipment leasing. 

The  Business Daily newspaper had an article on large scale (white) farmers in Kenya  in Tanzania, and some the challenges in terms of production, leasing, markets, diversification and business secessions.

Farm Networks & New Media Tools: The iHub blogged about the results of the Rockefeller Foundation 2012 Innovation Challenges Competition which aimed to generate innovative ideas for how to address water insecurity, food insecurity, as well as key challenges posed by urbanization. Four Kenyan Entries were shortlisted as finalists and two emerged the winners in the categories farming now and decoding data. The one on farming was by Joseph Macharia and aimed to empower youth with agricultural information through radio and other ICTs.

At a recent Wireless Wednesday session at the mLab, several mobile applications relating to agriculture were showcased including Mkulima Calc (a farm management system) GreenhousePro (an input calculator) FarmPal (equipment for hire, sell produce online, find temp farm staff)  Fishmate, GreenHouseDIY and Mpoultry.

There is a very nice & informative Farming Kenya group on Facebook group as well as a mobile social network for farmers called Ukulima.net.

Financing: Away from the traditional financiers in agriculture like banks and the agriculture finance corporation. They covered a variety of targets sectors and are of interest to farmers willing to invest alongside the funders.

Last week saw the launch of a new  Kshs 2 billion (~$25 million) African Agricultural Capital Fund by Pearl Capital Partners that will invest  in high growth businesses in the agricultural value chain in East Africa

They have been in investing in the East Africa region for a few years in diverse companies including in seed, certification, ethanol and poultry. They invest, advise and growing with investee companies over  5 – 7 years.

  The fund is seeking agri-business firms with a  turnover of less than $10m, fewer than 150 employees, less than $5m asset value, but which have high-quality management chains to invest amounts of $300,000 to 2.5M (Kshs 25 – 200M shillings) in debt or equity. 

At the launch, Jane Karuku, the  president of  AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), spoke about their goal of promoting food security, by invest throughout the food chain from seed to market (including sustainable markets, regional/export) and the work they had done with partner banks and institutions to finance $4 billion in Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania where they have had the greatest success by funding seed companies.

Guide to Libreville

A guest post about a recent visit to Gabon. 

Getting There: Kenya Airways has direct flights from Nairobi to Libreville (via Douala) and flies 3 times a week. It’s around US$1400 and the flight isn’t usually full.

If you don’t have a visa you’ll need to buy one upon arrival. It costs €70 and you’ll need a letter of invitation. The airport terminal is new and clean and very easy to navigate. They often check yellow fever certificates but there are no unexpected taxes or other charges. The airport is very close to town so it’ll cost around US$5 to catch a ride to the centre.

Getting Around:  – French is the main language spoken in Gabon and you hear this on the streets more than local languages. There aren’t any English language papers.
– Prices vary considerably between local and tourist places so it’s hard to give a standard daily spend, but around US$ 20-30 should be reasonable.
– Libreville is a small and quiet city, which feels very safe to walk around, although you shouldn’t walk alone at night or take a taxi alone at night.

Shared taxis are the usual means of transport – a private car that picks up people by the side of the  road – you have to flag them down, tell the driver where you want to go and what you’ll pay (it’s around 200 CFA per kilometre). The driver then chooses whether to take you to the destination if it’s on his route and he’s happy with the price. You’ll need to double the price at night. If you want to be driven alone (i.e. for the driver not to pick up other passengers), the price is 3 or 4 times higher – you just spot an empty taxi and ask: “une course pour “(your destination)”.

Where to Stay:  Hotels are expensive, the best are L’Hotel du Phare in la Sabliere (2 mins from airport), Maisha (further along the main road in La Sabliere) and Le Meridien in Glass (5 mins after the Presidential Palace). Expect to pay around US$ 300/night. Cheaper options include l’Etoile d’Or in La Sabliere, a new Chinese-run hotel with purely Chinese furniture and fittings (everything from the soap dispenser to the toilet has Chinese writing on it and ridiculously bad English and French translations… although the food is pretty good!

Communications:  You can get full BlackBerry service although data speeds are slow and voice can also be problematic. There’s a new cyber cafe at the entrance to the Montee de Louis (entertainment district with lots of bars and restaurants) and WiFi hotspots at Dolce Vita restaurant at Port Mole and Hotel du Phare in la Sabliere (the diplomatic district near the airport). Electricity supply is pretty reliable.

Dining: You can eat like a king in Libreville – the quality and variety of restaurants is surprisingly good. There are great French restaurants, ethnic restaurants from many parts of the world (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese), gourmet African food and more down to earth little “maquis”. Prices vary considerably – from dizzyingly expensive top range French restaurants such as Le Bateau Ivre and le Phare du Large, through to local joints which are much more affordable. The best value is often found in Lebanese restaurants (called “Cuisine Mediterranéenne”). They sell both Lebanese and French/Italian food for around $10. There’s a great open-air pizzeria near the airport called Rivoli with an amazing selection of homemade pizzas. Also, Gabon specialises in bushmeat so you can find python, crocodile, porcupine and even monkey if you look in the right places…

You can get a beer in all bars very easily – local beer is great and cheap, and while prices vary depending on the establishment, usually for a dollar or two, you’ll be happy! . In bars, they talk about politics, business (theirs and those of their neighbours), sports and weather.

Shopping & Sight-Seeing: For shopping, Centre Mbolo is the main commercial centre with supermarkets and international brands. It’s a useful place but there’s nothing really special here. The town centre is also full of interesting shops – mainly imported goods but if you can’t afford to travel to France you’ll find French fashion at French prices… For local arts and crafts, there’s a great artisan market in the town centre selling art, masks, clothes, leather goods and other souvenirs.

The best thing you can do is take a boat from Port Mole to the island opposite Libreville – La Pointe Denis, where you see pristine and deserted white sandy beaches, backed by tropical forest – it’s an incredible place. Alternatively, you can drive to Le Cap, which is also a beach but you reach it through the forest so it’s an unusual and beautiful drive. The beach isn’t as good as La Pointe but lots of Gabonese (as opposed to tourists) have beach huts there so there’s a great atmosphere with family and friends hanging out and chilling.

Biggest surprise:  Gabon is a calm and beautiful country; 85% is forest as Gabon is part of the Congo Basin, the earth’s “second lung” and there are 13 national parks, in line with the Government’s commitment to protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable development. There are beautiful waterfalls and huge rivers running through the forest and you can visit pygmy communities who still practice traditional rituals and preserve their culture. Gabonese art is unique and impressive – painting, sculptures and masks are all highly collectable although many of the top Gabonese artists live abroad.