Watching his parents’ banana harvest go to waste due to lack of market prompted John Kinyua to develop Mkulima Bora app that paves way for farmers to have a direct link between them and consumers. He explains the impact it has had so far on farmers, especially maize farmers who are victims of post-harvest losses.
Where did the idea to develop Mkulima bora come from?
Being farmers, my parents saw most of their products go to waste due to lack of a market. This made me realize that there was a challenge in finding the right market for farmers’ produce. With my knowledge in computer science, I decided to come up with Mkulima Bora app in 2014 to offer a connection between farmers and consumers across the country.
What’s your business model and how do you make money?
Since we are dealing with farmers we charge a small subscription fee for service use on a weekly and monthly basis. We charge 50sh per week and 150 per month. However, for the first 6 months, the services in the app are free. We also have a library on the app where farmers can access e-books written by professionals for 200ksh. Since its commencement, the app has generated a good amount.
How is the farmers’ reception of the app to date?
The app is used country wide. Farmers have really appreciated the services on the app. We serve more than 3000 farmers on the app and more than 11k on social media platforms. Small scale farmers use the app more as compared to large scale farmers. On a daily basis we have at least 200 users on average using the app.
Maize farmers face a lot of challenges after their harvest. How has Mkulima bora made things easier?
From our data 1200 maize farmers have so far used the app. I would say this is promising because there are no middle men involved as has been in the “normal” way of selling things. The losses made are fewer as one can sell their produce at their convenient time other than sell due to a lack of storage.
Apart from offering a marketing platform what else does Mkulima bora app do?
Oh yes! We have a digital library for farmers. This is in partnership with agro officers where we share the revenue earned with them. By doing so this creates employment while at the same time offering information to farmers in matters farming. We are still expanding to become an end to end platform for farmers.
With the rise in cyber-crime attacks and threats, how does Mkulima bora ensure data security of its users?
Well so far we have received no complaint from the app users. To put off jokers we always demand phone verifications upon registration to put off criminals.
What challenges have you experienced so far?
Financial constraints have been a persistent headache. Having to finance this venture from our pockets to see the services run has been tough. Secondly, Kenya’s market is one that requires special attention if one is to make something meaningful from it. One needs to take time to understand the market. We have overcome this by selecting a research team that enables us to assist farmers to their satisfaction.
Final words
Young people have brilliant innovative ideas that need to be channeled towards creating solutions that are ideal for our markets and which solve both economic and social problems. We nurture young innovators through an incubation program called JK Invent.
