The Challenge
The necessary money for building the basic infrastructure is not available to the Kenyan small scale farmer. Also even if they are really not big amounts, the small scale farmer has no money or first needs it for his or her children education or for hospital bills.
Micro Investment Banks give out credits, but they charge high interest rates between 10% and 30% and need land of the farmer as a security. He or she who understands what land ownership means to a Nandi (Nandis – the tribe based here), can easily be able to deduce that these people are not willing to risk their land as a security. Possible insurance to insure the harvests is now available, but it is also still not been used by the people here.
The main obstacle is water. Although ground water is available in enough quantities in our region, but there are no resources to create and build an efficient irrigation system for the vegetable farms. In addition, there come of course other investments such as pumps, water storage tanks, tractor for field preparation, wheel barrows, spades, seedlings, manure and more others.