Enjoying fresh air here in Homa Bay, from the hustle and bustle of town. No carbon monoxide from the city.
Exploring the oilseed farms of Homa Bay was like a dream come true in the area of agro-tourism. On Wednesday 10th of April 2024, I left Nairobi with the CEO of Seven Fields Enterprise in the person of Millicent Abilliah. I heard Millicents story when we first met in Ghana sometime last year, 2023 was amazing. Coming from a humble beginning with peasant farmers as parents, she and her elder brother Patrick Abilliah (of blessed memory) had to help their parents on other people’s farm, in the quest to make ends meet and support in their education. From the day she started working on people’s farm, she knew her calling was farming and she added value to her products. Millie is an organic farmer and she cultivates sesame, sunflower, sorghum and peanut. We arrived at Rodi a few minutes drive to Homa Bay. After being welcome by the Godfather, we pitched our tent on the compound of her house. Camping is not a new thing in Kenya but a new experience to her. There has been a heavy downpour and the ground was soft. After resting for a while, we had supper then followed by the usual camping coffee.
Coffee from Theyah, a female coffee company whose history was laid down from a generation of women, and since my quest to East Africa was to promote women in agro-tourism and Agribusiness, I embraced the brand and really enjoyed the night of coffee from one of the best coffee farms.
During the morning of the following day, we fried eggs for breakfast with bread together with coffee for breakfast. Cold pressed Sunflower oil was used to fry the eggs. The oil had a fresh sunflower smell. Millie, before preparing breakfast, took us through how sunflower farming is done and after harvesting of the sunflower, dries the seeds then process it into oil but cold pressed oil. The extraction is done in Nairobi. Cold pressed sunflower oil helps retain the natural flavor, aroma, and nutritional value of the sunflower seeds, as well as preserving the oil’s beneficial compounds, such as antioxidants and vitamins.
We moved to the farm to watch and aid those on the field to clear and plant. These were females who were busy at work. The idea of supporting females was what I noticed on the Seven Fields Enterprise.
Whiles on the farm we were served with cassava and tea with fresh milk from the farm.
Working on the farm was great work especially by the local women with no agricultural equipment such as planters, just to mention but a few. Millicent Abilliah narrated to me how she started Seven Fields Enterprise, which happens to be a start-up enterprise of the agricultural sector with a focus on organic farming of oilseeds. The business represents a small field (farms) brought together for bulk production of organic produce specifically for organic consumers and processing companies dealing in natural foods. The business has been in operation for four years and was registered in September 2021. Logistics is a challenge as the farm is far off from our market, which proves to be expensive when transporting the produce to Nairobi for packaging and delivery to customers.
Working in an industry as a small agripreneur at times can be difficult especially when promoting products in the same space with well-established players.
Female leadership is slowly gaining presence appreciation in the different industries and I must say that stakeholders are providing platforms for women to excel in their respective roles and agriculture is one of them.
Millicent has 4.5 acres of land where she cultivates sunflower, chia, soybean, groundnuts, sesame. This also includes a demonstration farm from farmers wanting to gain knowledge and skills in growing organic oilseeds. On average, small scale farmers that she works with have land ranging between 1 to 3 acres.
She keeps records of the farm activities from acres, to planting, harvesting and processing or value addition.
Millicents expectations for the next 5 to 10 years is to have a fully-fledged agribusiness enterprise that has a well-equipped storage facility, logistics department, product analysis, quality assurance and packaging. She also has demonstration farms with different crops for training for individuals, institutions and farmers. She also has an oil processing facility for her sunflowers and soybeans.
Access to loans is not easy as institutions see farming as a risk because of the low crop yields.
Plans are underway to start exporting to other countries once we have met all trade regulations and acquired all the necessary certifications and licenses. Her aim is to achieve this milestone before the end of 2024.
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