A happy, juicy and meaty cassava: The test of a genuine farmer

Kenya is full of farmers, or so one can be led to believe through social media. On Facebook alone, more than 37,000 Kenyans are members of Digital Farmers Kenya, Farming Kenya has 33,000 while Mkulima Young boasts 76,418. All these Kenyans announce that they ‘farm’, and sell some produce or the other. Browsing through the posts, however, you read a few lamentations of encounters with fake farmers. One comment from a conned member read, ‘are members here real farmers?’

Well then, how do you tell a real farmer from a fake? The test of a real farmer is not how many kilos of watermelon or nyanya they can plant. Neither is it the size of acres they can lease in Narok to grow wheat. No. A real farmer is one who can make cassavas happy and sell them to the strict customers of Kisumo.