Business of hiring out farm machinery
David Osamba with one of the farming machines that he hires out to farmers in Kisumu County. He provides smallholder rice farmers with the machines so that they mechanise their operations and improve their earnings.
What you need to know:
- David Osamba runs a firm through which he hires out transplanters, walking tractors and power reapers to smallholder farmers growing maize, rice and sugar cane in various counties in Western in a unique business model.
- The information technology scientist turned agribusiness entrepreneur runs Nyabon Enterprises, through which he owns several small farm machines that he hires out to rice, maize and cane farmers in Kisumu and Homa Bay counties.
- He registered his business and invested his savings in importing the small engine tractors for sale in Kenya.
- To hire a power tiller (walking tractor), a farmer pays Sh3,000 per day, and the manually driven machine can till up to 1.5 acres per day.
The small, hand-driven machine cuts through the rice crop at Nyang’ande scheme in Ahero, Kisumu County, as it harvests the grain.
Driving the machine is a worker who meticulously ensures that it cuts all the stalks, which it then arranges on one side.
After clearing one section, the worker turns to the next as he hums, an indication that he is enjoying the work.
Standing on the side of the paddy field watching as the rice is harvested is David Osamba, the owner of the machine called a power reaper. On this day, Osamba has hired it out to a farmer harvesting the crop.
The information technology scientist turned agribusiness entrepreneur runs Nyabon Enterprises, through which he owns several small farm machines that he hires out to rice, maize and cane farmers in Kisumu and Homa Bay counties.
Business idea
“I provide smallholder rice farmers with the machines so that they mechanise their operations and improve their earnings,” he says.
Osamba recounts that he picked the business idea while working for multinational firm, Unilever in India.
“I was impressed by the way smallholder farmers in India were using hand-driven diesel machines to cultivate their land, transplant crops, weed, harvest and process rice in a simple, quick and extremely efficient manner,” says Osamba, who hails from Wahanda village in Kisumu County.
The machines, according to him, made work so easy compared to what he had seen happening in his village, where farmers were struggling with the hoe for days to till an acre, a job that a small tractor could do in less than an hour.
A farmer harvests rice using a machine called power reaper from David Osamba’s Nyabon Enterprises. To hire a power tiller, a farmer pays Sh3,000 per day, and the manually driven machine can till up to 1.5 acres per day.
After his contract expired in 2014, Osamba had figured out how he could fill the gap and make some money.
He registered his business and invested his savings in importing the small engine tractors for sale in Kenya.
Farmer awareness
“I entered into a partnership with VST Shakti Ltd, a tractor manufacturing company in India to be their only dealer in Kenya and East Africa. I then imported my first consignment of small machines, which I stored in a rented go down in Nairobi, hoping that people would quickly buy them and enable me import more,” he recalls.
The idea was brilliant, so he believed, but eight months after the importation, he had sold none.
“No one even came to inquire about the price of any of the machines. I had to go back to the drawing board because I had already started making losses since I was paying rent for the yard every month for a business that was not working.”
Osamba realised he had started on a wrong footing since he had not invested in farmer awareness.
“I terminated my contract with the godown owner and transported all the machines to my village home in Kisumu,” recounts Osamba, adding he had figured out another business model in which he was to work with small farmers.
His entry point was Nyang’ande Rice Scheme. “I began doing demonstrations to show farmers how the machines are used to prepare the paddies, transplant rice, weed, harvest and even transport the produce to the store.”
Exhausting and time-consuming
Soon, farmers started hiring his machines. In the season that followed, he brought together 70 farmers who owned a combined 50 acres to experiment on full mechanisation of their farms. It worked and since then, his business took off.
“Under the model, we partner with farmers. They pay 50 per cent of the machinery costs while we cater for the rest and then recover after the harvest,” says Osamba.
To hire a power tiller (walking tractor), a farmer pays Sh3,000 per day, and the manually driven machine can till up to 1.5 acres per day.
On the other hand, the reaper can harvest up to six acres a day, thus bringing down the cost and time used to do the work as compared to when tilling with a hoe or using a sickle to harvest.
“One person can till an acre using a hoe for a full week working from morning to afternoon, which is exhausting and time-consuming. The same piece can be tilled by one man using a power tiller in less than a day, making it possible for farmers to increase their acreage.”
Osamba has staff who show farmers how to operate the machines, which are easy to use.
Farmers use David Osamba’s machines to shell maize in Kisumu County.
“We have 30 machines, the smallest is a 13 horsepower, followed by 22 and the largest is 27 horsepower,” says Osamba, noting they work with West Kenya Mills and the National Cereals and Produce Board, among others, for farmers to pay for services.
Serve several people
Godfrey Orwa, 31, a farmer from Lower Kuja Scheme in Nyatike, Homa Bay County, says working as a group and with machines speeds up work and the crop grows uniformly.
His yields have improved in terms of quality and output, from twenty-five 50kg bags of rice per acre, to about 45.
Osamba targets to increase the number of farmers he is working with to 10,000 by 2021, spread in Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, Homa Bay and Bunyala in Busia.
To achieve the goal, he is currently working in collaboration with Kilimo Trust, with support from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra).
Eliud Etiang’, the deputy director for agricultural mechanisation with the Busia County government, says access to farm machinery is key to improving agricultural productivity, thus livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
“Farmers can team up so that when one tractor is available in a particular location, it can serve several people in a day or two,” he says, adding farmers need mechanisation technology that is economically viable, affordable and adapted to local conditions.
satnation@ke.nationmedia.com
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Benefits
1. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, farm power and mechanisation will be essential in the quest to raise the labour and land productivity required if Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2 (ending poverty and hunger) are to be achieved.
2. FAO points out that mechanisation of smallholder farm will stimulate the product value chain and activate input supply (that is to raise farm productivity, stimulate value addition and encourage private sector custom hire service provision).
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