Aggregation center for smallholder farm produce

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Anthony Murigu. Am a kenyan by birth. I was born and raised by a single mother . My mother was a smallholder farmer who struggled to educate me.

Despite the challenges through my primary and high school education I managed to secure a slot at Dedan Kimathi University where I studied Bsc Civil Engineering. Later I joined Nairobi University to pursue MSc in Civil Engineering structural option.

My zeal to see a change in our society especially the less privileged remains my sol goal. Empowering and uplifting the smallholder farmers is always key to me.
I have run a number of programs that tragets to empower the smallholder farmers; Farmers Award which have
16 awards categories for small holder farmers, Ukulima Magazine which creates content to farmers and Ukulima TV which serves the same purpose as Ukulima Magazine.
I was on a psv (matatu) from Kagio in Kirinyaga county heading to Nairobi. I saw heaps of tomato thrown everywhere. Farmers were walking with their heads down. I had to alight from the matatu and have a talk with some of these farmers. I gave them an ear to air their challenges. They talked of Poor market and unpredictable weather pattern being serious challenges.
It is from this where Ukulima Kisasa Market was born in December 2021.

My Business

Ukulima Kisasa Market is digital and physical market for farm products in urban centers. We have E-commerce platform ukulimamarket.com and physical franchised stores ukulima stores which sells farm produce at wholesale prices to farm produce retailers(Mama mboga), restaurant and institutions. Our business focus is on empowering small scale farmers so we have aggregation or collection centers where we collect farm produce. In these aggregation centers we have agronomist who assist farmers during the farming period. Our business also focuses on empowering and reducing the cost of mama mboga by ensuring they have close access of these farm produce at good price.

Project Proposal

Am pleased and humbled to apply for this loan which will not only benefit our business but impact many lives of small holder farmers. We have set up a model that franchises ukulima store in urban centers backed up by an E-commerce platform. We are currently setting up an aggregation center or a collection center in Kirinyaga County, Kangai ward. This center will serve as a farm produce collection center from small-holder farmers. Our main products being collected are tomatoes, Chilli, Spinach, managu and Amaranth. After collection, farmers will always be paid promptly. The farmers will also enjoy the services of our agronomist who will walk with the during the farming period.

The funds being raised will be used to top up and help us set up our container structure at the aggregation. It will help us do the partitioning and do some branding.

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