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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Youth group ventures in profitable capsicum farming

Crop

By FILEX MURIITHI | Sep 25, 2019

**Members of Aberdare Impact Youth Organization from Njabini Kiburu ward in Kinangop in one of their greenhouse.**

The biting unemployment has caused many young people across the country to live in frustration. But this is not so for a 15-member youth group from Nyandarua County.

The members of the Aberdare Impact Youth Organization from Njabini Kiburu ward in Kinangop is turning their fortunes through farming.

The group grows capsicum in a greenhouse where every week, they sell between 150Kg and 200Kg at sh60 per kilogram making an average weekly the income of Sh9,000.

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“What we would urge the government is to support many youth groups and show them that money is in the soil. There is no other business better than farming,” Susan Mworia, the group secretary says.

She says the group planted their first 1,000 capsicums in October last year and started harvesting in January this year. She says for the last nine months they have made good money that sustains the members and enables them to pay school fees for three children of their members in secondary school.

The group has also formed a band and managed to buy music equipment and public address system worth Sh900,000. This has increased their earning by renting the equipment and performing at events.

They also hold talent shows in schools and use proceeds from their farming to buy presents for the winning pupils and students.

Mworia says instead of staying idle and lamenting lack of employment the youth should consider utilizing the land which stay idle in their homes and localities. She says they should form groups and approach the government for assistance.

With greenhouse farming, she says, one can utilize even a small piece of less than an eighth of an acre and make good money. Her group was among the first youth groups that benefited from the first lot of machines and equipment gifted by Nyandarua county government under its youth empowerment program in August last year.

She says the county administration has walked with them every step to ensure they profit from the venture and now the group is assisting other youth groups.

In their rented one-acre farm at the outskirts of Njabini town, the group is also growing cabbages, carrots, beetroots, reeks spinach and kales outside the greenhouse business. This too improves their income.

Mworia says they face a few challenges in their greenhouse farming. When it was donated to them by the county government, they were not provided with the posts to support the trellises. This she says may make it impossible for the greenhouse to last its ten-year warranty.

Sometimes they are forced to spray their neighbours’ crop if the neighbours do not do it as it causes pests and diseases to affect their crop.

Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia says the Aberdare Life Impact Youth Organization among other groups are a true illustration of what young people can achieve given the requisite support.

“Theirs is a true testimony of success. Their story is inspiring, “he says.

The Nyandarua county assembly chairman for Youth and Sports committee, Rimui Kaiyani, echoes Kimemia’s sentiments. He says it is not only wonderful but also inspiring that the group has expanded from capsicum farming to other ventures.

“This reflects true value for money appropriated by the county assembly to the youth department. To change the lives of the young people is to put money into their pockets, “he says.

The Njabini based group was among the group visited by Tharaka Nithi Education, Youth, Culture, and Tourism executive Sheila Kiganka and her chief officer Fridah Murungi when they, early this month led a delegation from their county for a benchmarking tour of youth empowerment programs in Nyandarua county.

“We plan to advise our government to implement it back at home to improve the lives of our young people as most of them get lost in things that add no value to their lives. Some youths get desperate when they fail to secure employment after school,” Kiganika said.

She noted that Nyandarua youth are creative in that the Nyandarua government only provided them with a stepping stone from where they have “climbed to levels not even anticipated by the government.”

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