Kenya: Entrepreneur’s Concept Blossoms
Bilha Maina could not have ignored the chance to invest Sh500,000 of her savings on a Jatropha plantation in Matuu where her family owns 40 acres of land.
Ms Maina is the CEO of Adopt a Village an enterprise that grows Jatropha trees and trades them to farmers, and industries that are seeking alternative energy sources.
Lately, Jatropha has become a popular subject in the Kenyan market.
“My focus is to develop extensive Jatropha nursery beds and to trade the seedlings to interested farmers such as the incoming Japanese who have shown interest in the markets, but primarily to create a base for generation of seeds that currently is a major challenge in the market”, she said in an interview at her farm in Matuu.
The tree produces oil seeds that when crushed produce oil that can be converted into Bio-diesel.
“Our business is to commercialise the production of Jatropha based bio-fuels, through the development of a small-scale farmer outgrower’s scheme”, Ms Maina says, explaining that the enterprise will help the neighbouring community to be self sufficient with bio-oils for domestic cooking and lighting.
“We aim to create a model village for “Adoption” by industries that may be interested in substituting fossil fuel with bio-fuels that are cleaner for their production processes, but whose primary business not being in agriculture, would create a challenge in developing and growing the oil crop”, says the Adopt a Village CEO.
Ms Maina works as a business development specialist and has over 10 years experience gained both in private and public sector organisations.
“This project will help alleviate poverty by creating employment especially for women and increasing food security”, she said.
In spite of the rural electrification schemes, lighting in rural Kenya is still a challenge and more so, families are still dependent on biomass for cooking. Jatropha oil could in the future provide a safer and cheaper substitute once the technologies have been identified and made available.
Jatropha contains glycerine which makes it difficult to burn in a normal hurricane lamp or stove but research is currently underway to convert these implements to be able to burn crude oil without trans-etherification.
Many countries around the world have started venturing into production of bio-fuels in order to combat environment degradation as well as have alternative fuel sources thereby becoming independent of fossil fuels.
The 35 year-old CEO believes that offering entrenched business development services to groups of farmers and creating tangible linkages with other private sector players will empower the rural dwellers.
Ms Maina is growing the plant in large scale to sell out to the farmers at a subsidized price. The business developer argues that there is a need for the development of seeds for use in the Kenyan market as what is available locally and from the region tends to be of very poor quality. She urges the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to come in to ensure that farmers get the best seedlings.
Inspired by the fact that rural populace are abandoning agricultural activities in search of white collar jobs, she reckons that if cottage industries using bio-diesel could be introduced upcountry, then rural to urban migration will reduce significantly.
Ms Maina holds an MBA in marketing and strategic management from USIU. The sale of seedlings could help an average farmer earn some good revenue. A kilo of seeds for planting costs not more than Sh1,000. A truck load of saw dust costs Sh1,000, while soil goes for Sh3,000 and compost can be made from foliage and cow dung collected on the farm.
These purchased materials could plant up to 10 kilogrammes of seeds. A kilo of seeds requires 4 workers to prepare and plant at an average daily wage rate of Sh100 each. A seedling will be sold at Sh20. Harvested seeds retail between Sh6 to Sh15 per kilo. With just four employees, she projects an annual turnover of not less than Sh700,000.
“Am ready to make Jatropha, a cash crop for the dry lands”, she said