At the turn of the millennium John Wang’ombe graduated with the coveted Certified Public Accountant (CPA K) honors but instead of pursuing a successful career in Accounting, he fell in love with Agriculture and now he is on his way to become a Real Estate Magnet.
When John Wang’ombe is visiting Nairobi he often runs into his former classmates and he is not surprised when they ask him, “Why are you living like you never went to school John?”.
“That’s what they always ask me”, says Wang’ombe, who is building a shinning future for his three children with farming. After graduating from the prestigious Strathmore College, now University, John was selling like hot cake and he landed a job with a stock brokerage firm as an accountant. Although it was well paying (Ksh 45,000 a month), John quit after six years just when the firm was about to turn into an investment bank.
One of his classmates is now a finance manager; he owns a nice car and can afford to live in a rented bungalow but has no investments. Wang’ombe however, had a dream beyond a sleek car, imported clothes, trendy gadgets and cool memberships.
Simplicity is his rule of thumb. “If you eat chicken and I eat sukuma wiki, we both have a full stomach. If you wear a 5000 bob shirt and I wear a 100 bob shirt, they will both wear out”, farmer Wang’ombe quips as he adjusts the color of his faded shirt.
Wang’ombe quit his accountant job in 2006 and moved back to his backyard in Nyandarua County to start farming snow peas. The first two years were a disappointment but he never lost heart. He added dairy cows and rented more land to plant cabbages.
Wang’ombe farms 2.5 acres of land and he has made a fortune out of it. In his local Farmers’ cooperative, he is the top saver among farmers under 40 years of age. Wang’ombe shares the secret behind his saving culture: “My mother always advised me to save. ‘If you have ten thousand shillings, save it all so that when tomorrow you are called to do a fifty bob job you will go’, that’s what she always said and I listened to her”. Currently a share is worth Ksh200.
His big break came in 2009 when a kilogram of snow peas went up to Ksh150. Egypt and Zimbabwe, major exporters of snow peas, had problems with the export market and Kenya got the windfall. That year Wang’ombe made a whooping Ksh. 750,000 from the legume.
Out of his successes in farming, Wang’ombe wants to go into real estate business. He recently invested 1.2 million on a land and has already rented it out to a petroleum dealer who is running a petrol station. Using his savings, Wang’ombe has acquired 11 other plots on prime areas along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. He is edging closer to his dream of entering the lucrative Real Estate business.
Just this last snow peas season, Wang’ombe acquired another piece of land after M-Farm linked him and 26 other farmers in the area to an export market.
“I was the first farmer in the region to get in touch with M-Farm. We had problems with brokers; they always dictated the prices and we needed help. Sometimes they would go as low as Ksh20/kg of snow peas,” explains Wang’ombe. “One time a farmer emptied his pickup full of snow peas into the river when a broker offered to pay him Ksh5/kg. That’s how frustrated we would become sometimes.”
Transparency in the value chain has been a major problem in Agriculture and farmers have suffered silently. The cry of the farmer is a link to better markets. M-Farm connects farmers to markets.
Selling together is a product M-Farm is offering smallholder farmers to enter into commercial farming and increase their incomes. Wang’ombe belongs to a group of 26 farmers who collect their snow peas and sell together. M-Farm has worked with these farmers to ensure they meet the quality standards, the quantity required and a constant supply is guaranteed. In return, farmers have a stable market for their produce and at a better price. This is a relief as the biggest headache to farmers is where to sell their produce and at good price. Buyers are happy too to get high quality and constant supply of the required quantity from these farmers.
Wang’ombe has no regrets wearing gumboots from January to December and dispels the notion in many people’s minds that farming is only for those who failed in school. He advises young people to wake up from the dreamland of instant success and put their hands on the plough.
He also has a note he would like to pass to anyone who cares to listen, “Employment is a confortable prison, it can feel warm, cozy and secure but it can only do so much. Just subtract your expenses from your salary and if you hear an instant bell, look for the closest exit door.”