Paul Mwai with his award-winning sikuma wiki (kale) at 2017 Plant & Flower Show
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October17, 2017)
Paul Mwai’s
friends call him the Master Gardener for a reason.
He’s a
master, in part because he loves gardening and has done ever since he started
helping his mom plant potatoes and onions on their small farm in Nyahururu.
“She was an
organic farmer by default,” says Paul who’s built his own small business around
organic farming. “She couldn’t afford to buy chemical fertilizers or
pesticides, so we improvised,” he admits.
Paul with his award-winning lettuce while it's still in the soil
That early
introduction to chemical-free gardening led to his attending the Kenya
Institute of Organic Farming (KIOF) in Juja and also getting a job on site even
before graduating from the Institute.
“Part of our
course work was going out and training local farmers in the techniques of
organic farming,” Paul says. But as practical as KIOF’s approach was, he could
see the farmers weren’t satisfied.
Half acre plot in Runda was idle until Paul set to work designing a backyard garden for the lady
“Even though
they appreciated the value of growing their crops without chemicals, they had
no market for their produce. So I proposed that the school set up a shop where
we could market their crops,” Paul says.
The farmers
would make 70 percent of what was sold and the Institute made 30 percent, since
the KIOF van collected the produce, managed the shop and the sales, and solved
the farmers’ problem in the most practical and profitable way.
“We even
provided home deliveries,” recalls Paul who ran the entire project. “Our first
two clients and numbers shot even higher after that,” he adds, noting the marketing
was all by word of mouth.
Paul showing his assistant how to protect the cauliflower from excessive sun
But then,
Paul’s success attracted the attention of one lady farmer based in Karen who came
looking for him at the shop. She’d heard how he’s solved local farmers’ problem
and she wanted him to do the same for her. In effect, she already saw that he
had the makings of a ‘master gardener’!
“The lady
had capital and was already doing organic farming but she also had the problem
of no market,” he says. She wanted him to work for her full-time, since she
didn’t just want him to market her produce, but also to help her expand her
garden from two acres to ten.
The
challenge was so attractive that Paul had to quit his KIOF job, accept her
terms of service and move from Juja to Dagoretti which is much closer to Karen
Pumpkin leaves for mixing into mukimo, a Kikuyu delicacy.
The lady was
already growing all kinds of greens, including kale, spinach, lettuce and
broccoli as well as tomatoes, onions and cauliflower. But the way she was
farming didn’t maximize her plants’ potential. So Paul got to work setting up
nurseries to hasten the organic growth of seeds and seedling, creating shades
and green houses. Most importantly he addressed the water problem by
constructing a vast system of drip irrigation.
Leafy blue-leaved broccoli
In less than
two years, Paul helped her establish ‘Kalimoni Greens’ which emulated the
business plan he’d designed and run successfully in Juja. In no time, Kalimoni
had more than 100 customers. But it also attracted many more small scale
farmers who wanted him to help them construct their own ‘backyard gardens.’
“I informed
my boss that I’d like to do that work once a week,” he says. She agreed, not
knowing it wouldn’t be long before he’d give her three months’ notice and then
register his own small business, focused on Backyard Gardening.
Paul with his sikuma wiki (Kale)
‘Organic
Shamba Scaping’ started humbly, despite Paul’s setting up backyard gardens in
such up-market locations as Lavington, Kilileshwa, Runda and Karen. Today he’s
got more than 50 clients and more on a waiting list.
What really turned
the tide for his business was meeting another lady from Runda who wanted him to
help her establish a commercial garden in Machakos and two smaller kitchen
gardens in Runda where she has two half acre plots that had been left idle, as
if they were just waiting for him to arrive!
Drip irrigation has ensured that even in drought, his backyard gardens will grow healthy organic plants
Paul sprang
into action and her Machakos ground is already producing garlic, red onions,
tomatoes, beans and maize for commercial sales. But it was the Runda land that
has given Paul the greatest satisfaction. That’s because he entered this year’s
Plant and Flower Show, organized by the Kenya Horticultural Society and won
First, Second and Third prizes for his healthy organic greens.
“Our lettuce
won first; the spinach won the second and our Kale came in third,” says Paul
who now knows he’s earned the nickname, ‘Master Gardener.
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