Attack by thugs has not stopped me from running my seedlings project

Morris Gakuru at his nursery in Kamiu area, Embu County. Gakuru who moves around in a wheelchair to supervise his work has 70,000 seedlings of various fruit trees and plans to plant 100,000 macadamia trees. Photo by JOSEPH MUCHIRI/STANDARD

Morris Gakuru had experimented with many hustles before settling on seedlings farming.

The 28-year-old had worked as a taxi driver, a boda boda rider and a clothes seller but when an opportunity arose; the installation of irrigation water to his maternal grandmother’s home in Kamiu area, Embu West sub-county he relocated there to start Namor Horticulture Nursery.

With barely adequate capital and little expertise, the young man set down to work when misfortune struck.

The attack

On January 27 this year, over a dozen thugs stormed his house, stole money and beat him up leaving him with serious injuries.

Since then, he has been hopping from one hospital to another seeking treatment as the medical bill escalates but still hopeful that one day he would be back on his feet.

The sad incidence apart, Gakuru is a beacon of determination and resilience and the thousands of grafted seedlings in his nursery verify this.

The jovial young man radiates inspiration as he narrates his story to Smart Harvest team.

His grafting nursery occupies an approximate quarter an acre of land and deals exclusively in fruits seedlings.

The nursery has been approved by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service.

When we visited, he had about 70,000 seedlings of different varieties of mangoes, oranges, lemons, apples, avocado, loquats and macadamia seedlings.

He plans to expand his farm project by propagating 100,000 more macadamia seedlings.

How he started

Gakuru set off his nursery in October 2013 using the Sh15,000 he had saved up from his hustles. He used the money to buy polythene bags that he filled with soil mixed with manure to plant the seeds.

He had already bought four lorries of soil at Sh4,000 each.

“This turned out not to be an easy job from the onset. I had visited some people in the locality who grew seedlings and got to learn a lot from them,” he says.

Resilient

To sustain himself, he would sell clothes during the day and manage his seedling nursery in the evening.

He would collect waste seeds of various fruits from markets, wash, dry and then plant them in polythene sheets filled with mixture of soil and manure.

“I came to learn hard work begins after the seeds germinate which entails grafting them,” he says.

He was forced to engage the services of a farmer experienced in grafting. The farmer charged him Sh5 for every seedling grafted.

Gakuru also came to learn how to incise the root stock, implant the scion then firmly tie it to keep off moisture that attracts diseases.

To cut on cost of buying chemical sprays, he ensures the stock and scions are disease-free.

The journey

Within a year of starting, he had 2,000 seedlings ready for sale.

He says a broker bought 1,000 seedlings at Sh60 each, which was his first major sale.

“That was a major boost for me. I used the money to plant and graft 10,000 seedlings in November 2014. I was hoping to make a kill from it but unfortunately the January attack slowed down business,” he says.

Lucky for him, the project still brings in the much needed money to meet his daily needs and pay his hospital bills.

Market problems

Despite being confined in a wheelchair, Gakuru moves around in the farm to oversee farm work and is also assisted by his wife.

“I love being in the farm and it is even therapeutic. I have to hire four workers daily to help with the farm work. I believe God will give me back my ability to walk so that I can take full charge of my farm,” he says.

Though he is unable to market his seedlings as effectively as he would were he on his two feet, Gakuru still makes some sales.

During the interview he sold apples worth Sh16,000 to a customer based in Voi.

He also integrates e-commerce in his work and sells via mobile phones and Internet to far away customers then sends them well-packed seedlings through courier services.

To those who want to start a seedling project he shares his top tips.

The farmer says a seed takes two months from the time of planting to when it is ready for grafting. After 21 more days it is ready for sale.

He grafts using suckers from mature trees of the desired varieties.

He sells grafted apple seedlings at Sh150 each and all the others at Sh100 each.

The mango varieties he has include Kent, Tommy, Apple, Ngoe and Vandyke.

He also grows the popular Hass avocado variety, oranges, lemons, tangerines among others.

His future plans?

“My big plan is to plant 100,000 macadamia seedlings, a venture that will cost me Sh1million that I have started saving for. Towards this project, I have already bought the required soil and I am preparing to set up a greenhouse for the grafted trees.

His uncle who rears two dairy cows provides him with manure.

For idle youth who always complain that there are no jobs, the farmers has this to say.

“Lack of capital should not be an excuse for not starting a money making project. Where there is a will, there is a way. I started with almost no capital and I now the sky is the limit,” he says.