A farm that specialises in open and greenhouse farming is bringing to life the fun and vigour of modern farming by organising children’s activities where visitors spend the day touring the farm and learning leadership skills through fun farming activities.

The entirely novel farming games are open to kids aged 8 and over in Gramonra Gardens in Athi River. The farm is also offering both weekend and holiday camps that include team building activities, a tour of the farm and a chance to learn about the importance of farming and its relevance to the lives of most Kenyans. The camps also focus on the role of the children as Kenya’s next crop of leaders.

The activities for the kids include herding, where the children are
divided into teams that compete against each other to herd goats and sheep into a pen as quickly as possible. Another activity is a practical lesson on harvesting the products of the farm, including being taught how to desucker and fertigate, as well as training in crops that can be grown in a garden.

“Kids are the next generation of farmers,” said Sam Gathigi, the CEO of Gramonra Gardens, explaining the need to introduce the concepts of farming at an early age, as many young people seem to think farming is for older people.

“Even the education system does not teach farming as enterprising. Some kids do not even know how a tomato plant looks and just see it as essential.”
The farm has partnered with Dawn Treaders, a company with more than eight years of experience in the business, to provide the team building activities. The activities not only help the kids learn how to contribute in a team and appreciate each other’s work, but also how to express themselves and open up to people.

“Working in a team makes the kids aware of things like cooperation and trust and, in a way, make them responsible human beings,” said Gathigi.

Located some 45 kilometres from Nairobi on the Nairobi-Kangundo Road, Gramonra Gardens was started in January last year. Gathigi, 38, says the idea was born when he attended the International Trade Fair and found people doing very innovative things. He was challenged and wanted to be one of the young farmers demonstrating that farming is enterprising.

The farm leases out space to people wishing to put up green houses and offers advice on farm management including husbandry, pathology and nutrition. It also manages farms for people wishing to farm but without the time or expertise to do so, employing young horticultural graduates as farm managers.

The farm’s products include tomatoes, onions, spinach and arrow roots, some in green houses and others in the open. The farm house, a three-bed house situated on 8 acres of land, has a picnic site where families can spend time after the farm games.

The numerous indigenous trees surrounding the farm gives the visitors a chance to breathe in some fresh air, and makes the farm stand out in this relatively dry area of Machakos. Gathigi says he plans to renovate the house and eventually host families for overnight camping with an in-house chef. The farm will also have camping sites, and is in the process of installing fish ponds for fish farming.

“Part of the concept has been to bring families together and create an educational centre,” said Gathigi. The farm idea has consolidated effor ts from the government and the private sector to entice more young Kenyans to embrace farming, particularly new forms of agriculture.

Under a partnership between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Amiran, the makers of the green houses kit, over 50 secondary schools have been given free greenhouses. The venture has returned impressive produce, and the youngsters are now selling the produce in their local markets with students recording heightened appreciation of agribusiness.

21st century youth - divorced from the land
➢ In the UK, a survey last year found that just 1 in 20 city children had any interest in
becoming farmers.
➢ One in ten children in the UK’s Midland cities, such as Birmingham, had never been
outside the city
➢ A study of 9,000 15-year-olds in the Netherlands found half of them didn’t know that
normal agriculture uses more chemicals and fertilisers than green agriculture
➢ Research in Los Angeles, USA, found the majority of school pupils could not name
any crops grown in their state, or define the word agriculture
Celebrating Kenya’s agricultural core
➢ Nearly three-quar ters of Kenyans make their living on the land.
➢ The nation’s farmers provide food to over 40 million people daily
➢ Agriculture is the second largest contributor to Kenya’s economy
➢ Farmers make more than one-third of the produce that Kenya sells abroad. This
earns the country a lot of money in foreign currency.
➢ Agriculture provides three-quar ters of the country’s raw materials for industry

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