Agri-tourism: Where discerning farmers sharpen skills

Caroline Gichuki-Mugo during the interview at Nation Centre on January 29, 2015. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

What you need to know:

  • Caroline Gichuki-Mugo tells us why agri-tours are important.

After working in leisure tour firms for six years, Caroline Gichuki-Mugo set up a firm purely for agricultural tours. This April, she will be in Israel with farmers for the famed annual agritech exhibition in Tel Aviv. She tells VERONICA NYAMBURA why agri-tours are important

What is agri-tourism?

Agri-tourism involves travel that has a farming component. We, at Techfarm (Kenya) Tours and Travel, for instance, look out for forums where farmers can be educated about how they can successfully and profitably run agri-businesses.

How do you do this?

When we identify an event that is of high benefit to farmers, we draw a tour package that will include transport (or air ticket), airport transfers, travel documents, accommodation and conference charges.

These visits are not just educational. They include touring sites for relaxation. We want farmers to also enjoy a holiday out there because they are also working hard and can afford it.

Why agri-tourism now?

Before I formed Techfarm Tours, I was employed in several tour firms where we did ticketing and booked hotels for holiday makers and honeymooners. I then realised most of these clients were starting to get into agri-business.

They were dealing with very specific niche produce and livestock. Most of these required serious learning of managing them in a modern manner.

Who do you target in the tours?

Serious farmers who want to get an international exposure in whatever they are farming. We also seek farmers’ groups and county government officials in cooperative and agriculture dockets.

There are those looking for partnerships with other investors for value addition. Others are interested in new technology in their areas of production to minimise cost of running the farms and still maximise production.

Others are stakeholders in water technology, animal husbandry and energy saving. Mostly these would be corporate bodies that deal with farm inputs and want to import new technology to sell to farmers.

You have mentioned value addition. How can these trips aid a farmer towards this end?

I mean farmers who have substantially produced a product over a period of time and want to go to the next level.

For example, a dairy farmer may want a partner who can help him pack milk or sell processed products. Or a chicken farmer who wants to package chicken products.

What are you on at the moment?

We are headed to Israel this April for Agritech 2015 in Tel Aviv. We are the official representatives of this event in East Africa.

This is one of the biggest exhibitions of agricultural technology in the world. Israel is one of the most technologically advanced countries. So here, there will be an opportunity to sample and perhaps import the best forms of technology in agriculture.

What does attending trip entail?

One needs to register with us. The trip will take seven days. We shall be having both an educational trip and a religious one. If one has a passport, we can assist in getting the Visa to Israel. We are in partnership with the Embassy of Israel.

What would you advise the working middle class who are going back to farming as a way to earn an extra coin?

They should be encouraged they are doing the right thing at the right time. Food security in the country will be secured by smart and technologically-driven agriculture.

This is because population is rising, the soils are losing nutrients and the land can only get smaller. They should explore what the world out there has to offer.