This is a powerful entrepreneurial story of Robert Mwakio which he shared with Bizna Kenya.
I am Robert Mwakio, an Urban Planner but more importantly an Agripreneur. I am a keen reader of Bizna Kenya articles where i learn a lot.
This is my story:
After completing my undergraduate studies in Southern University A&M College in LA United States, i came back to Kenya to start a life. But the journey was not too smooth as i anticipated. I found a very corrupt system, full of nepotism and bribery that made it almost impossible to get a job if you didn’t know someone or didn’t part away with lots of money. My hopes did not fade away.
Having my knowledge from an A&M ( Agriculture and Mechanical) institution, i decided to apply some new ideas i had learnt during my studies abroad. I came up with an aquaponic system (integrated system that combines fish and crop culture in a structure) only that this time i decided to “africanise” it by using cheap and readily available materials that any african farmer could afford. Remember, aquaponic system in developed countries is highly mechanized and not affordable even to some institutions.
For starters, I did my experiment at my mom’s backyard back in the countryside using local cheap materials (see attached picture below);
I gave her instructions on what to be doing and how to feed the Tilapia and pumping the system. I left and went back to Nairobi. Six months later she call me and asked what she should be doing with the fish since they had grown and they were crowded in the tanks. I traveled to do the harvest, and in about 400 liters we had harvested almost 100 fully grown tilapia with an average weight of 0.6 g. This at market price could fetch us 250ksh each, but since i had not done market research the burden was on us; “how are we to get rid of all these?” I have never eaten so much fish like i did that time.
This demonstrated that aquaponics could be a success in Kenya and Africa. I started advertising, going to government offices, non governmental offices, schools and even to politicians who could sponsor the project as I continued with the research on how i could perfect it.
I came up with a new system that incorporated chicken called aquaponicpoultry and published a page explaining the benefit.
After sometime I was contacted by a Non Governmental Organization that wanted to sponsor an orphanage in a remote part of Kenya that incorporated Fish, Vegetables and Chicken to make the orphanage self sustaining. I did the project successfully (see attached picture below) and it was a success.
From this one project I started getting more orders from individual farmers who wanted to try it out. Most farmers wanted to see a running project since the technology is new in the continent.
One farmer living in the suburbs of Nairobi contacted me and requested me to set up an aquaponic system on his balcony since that’s the only space he had in his city home. I managed to complete the project and using 2 ibc containers that acted as ponds (each holding 1000lts) the farmer stocked a total of 800 tilapia and in 7 months he managed to get a profit of 157,092 ksh. Amazing! This story reached some media houses and later on many newspapers were talking about aquaponic within the city – how you can have a pond and a vegetable garden in your city house.
I have been making several systems for individual farmers and schools. The project has been my source of employment and it has enabled me to employ over 40 individuals. The projects are beyond borders to neighboring countries including one scheduled to start in June in the middle east.
The reason why I have shared my story on Bizna Kenya is to give hope to educated youths out there – anyone can make it. It only takes diligence and knowledge/application of all you learnt in school. Agriculture being the backbone of many African countries can be a great source of income.
To Contact Mwakio: Email Robert Mwakio