The Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) through the Ahas partnered with Nairobi Farmers Market (NFM) to hold a special market day event dubbed the Kiambu CountgriBiz Programme y Harvest Festival where youth and women in the AgriBiz Programme will be selling fresh farm produce directly to customers at the NFM located along Kiambu Road, before Sabis School, Runda.
During the Harvest Festival, residents from Kiambu, Nairobi and its environs will get to see how youth and women in AgriBiz are making agriculture cool as they buy farm-fresh foodstuff directly from the farmers. One of the main business challenges faced by micro small and medium enterprises and start-up businesses is access to markets and the creation of sustainable and strategic marketing networks.
As part of the program objectives, KCIC, through the AgriBiz program, seeks to create, facilitate, and foster market linkages for its clients. The Kiambu County Harvest Festival is a step towards achieving this goal. Kiambu County Governor James Nyoro says that his government will work with allied partners to promote agricultural practices in the county. “My administration is committed to bring back agriculture to its position of creating employment, enhancing food security and improving people’s livelihoods,” he says.
Main objectives
Adding that: “We will continue to work with strategic partners like KCIC and NFM to make this a reality in Kiambu County.”
The main objectives of the Harvest Festival are to bring together farmers, traders, service providers, stakeholders, and other players across the various value chains located within the Kiambu business hub and county, to create market linkages amongst them.
Promote the Nairobi Farmers Market as a potential buyer of most of the products and services provided by AgriBiz clients. Store owners (also farmers) at the NFM do not produce everything they market, and as such, these store owners wish to get reliable sources to supplement what they sell at the NFM.
Additionally the festival wants to initiate regular market days that will be held once a week and have a continuum of the Harvest Festivals that will be held three times a year. Creating strategic partnerships with NFM, Kiambu County Government, and other stakeholders, which will be key for the subsequent calls for applications is also part of the main objectives.
Market opportunities
The festival also aims at creating a pipeline of market opportunities for the AgriBiz clients by bringing on board the event diverse product off-takers and several media outlets to market the event and to create visibility for the KCIC programs and in particular the Agribiz program.
Dr. Edward Mungai the CEO of KCIC says that the AgriBiz programme will continue holding such events with an aim to promote networking opportunities between farmers and markets. “We are creating a culture where agripreneurs will supply food directly to consumers. This is the definite meaning of farm to fork because side-sellers are eliminated and the consumer also gets to buy farm-fresh and traceable products,” he says.
The AgriBiz programme is also promoting value addition of agricultural products among its clients. NFM General Manager Jeff Mundia says that NFM will continue to hold such festivals across the country so that more farmers and consumers can have strong linkages.
“The Harvest Festival is a great way to support local farmers and businesses. It is also another great opportunity, on top of shopping at the stores, to get some super fresh fruits and vegetables and locally raised meats, farm-fresh eggs and a variety of fresh produce from over sixty local farms that will be present at the festival,” he says.
The NFM Harvest Festival will run for three days, from 30th July to 1st August 2021. The 30th July is targeted to be the day that farmers come to set up their exhibition/selling booths and familiarize themselves with the market as they begin to sell their goods and services.
31st July is the main day that is targeted to have local media stations, County Government officials and Danida & EU representatives visit and other stakeholders. 1st July will be the final day where farmers will continue to market their products and services to shoppers at the NFM. All Covid-19 protocols will be observed therefore. Everyone is asked to wear a mask.
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