GROWING VEGETABLES IN GREEN HOUSES

1. GROWING VEGETABLES IN GREEN HOUSES Presented by Marie Chantal UWAMARIYA AGROCARE COOPERATIVE/RWANDA Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

2. CHAP I: BACKGROUND • Due to the low job market, one looks to entrepreneurship as an alternative. • My choice for the agricultural sector was largely driven by my background as an agronomist and the drive become economically self-reliant and also participate in the development of our country. • I teamed up with other 9 colleagues, all agronomists, to form AGROCARE COOPERATIVE way back in April 2012. • We first produced vegetables in a greenhouse, diverted to produce mushrooms and expanded to tomatoes and cored peppers. • We selected mushrooms because they would not require large capital investment for the start.   Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

3. 1.Experience in Farming • As legal representative and being the one who follows up all activities concerning production and marketing. • Our initial 2,500 USD contributions to the initiative was used to offset the mushroom production. • An initial start mushroom production was of 10 kg per week. Our current output is at 10 kg of mushrooms per day. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

4. Mushrooms ready to be harvested Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

5. Experience in Farming (Cont'd) • One year after the foundation of AGROCARE, the cooperative received the fund for the construction of 5 small green houses of15x8 meters each one. • The green houses farming gives approximately 6 times higher production compared to open fields. • From May 2013, our weekly production is150 to 200 kg of tomatoes, 25 to 30kgs of yellow and red peppers, and15 to 25 kg of green peppers. • We plan to expand the business by increasing the number of greenhouses from 5 to 20 green houses and subsequently boost production to 1000 kg per week of tomatoes and 150 kg of cored peppers. • We plan also to produce other horticultural products such as flowers and fruits. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

6. Tomatoes in green house and after harvesting Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

7. 2.Marketing and market access • Our marketing strategy starts directly after sowing and we allow our major clients to follow the production stages. • Our clientele is of varying categories, ranging from families, super markets for tomatoes and hotels for mushrooms. • Every week the families take about 20 kgs of tomatoes at 0.8 USD and the supermarkets 180 kgs at 0.9 USD . But the price can change depending on the seasons. • We aim at the international market when we’ll have enough production and capital for export. • For getting and maintaining good market, we have to make the difference from our competitors in terms of quality, quantity, packaging and try to be more professional. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

8. 3.Provision of support services • Support services are provided for Agricultural finance, extension, and research among other agricultural business development services. • I have experience in provision of support services specifically in extension. • In collaboration with Nyarugenge District , I gave training to the different farmersbout mushroom production. • We are turning our tomatoes farm into a demonstration center (3 cooperatives and 8 individuals so far came to visit our farm). Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

9. CHAP II: IMPACT Afterrunning this business the following benefits were gained by our cooperative and by the society: • Job creation and opportunity to meet my initial drivers. • Income generation for the cooperative members. • Availability of production regardless of seasons, result of green house farming system. • Farmer’s capacity building through our demonstration center and different trainings provided to farmers. • Proffessionalism Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

10. CHAP III: CHALLENGES & STRATEGIES The major challenge we’ve faced so far is the limited access to financial resources. Specifically, we faced the following problems: • Low income: the 5 green houses we have cannot generate enough income to expand our business. • Limited access to the market: our current market is limited to the national level. Apart from increasing the production for export, we need the significant budget for marketing our products to the international level. • Transport of our products: we use the public transport which delays and damages the products to supply; consequently, we risk to lose our clients. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

11. CHALLENGES & STRATEGIES (Cont’d) Strategies: For overcoming the said problems, we will: • use the profit from what we have; this will take a long time; • participate to national and international competitions for innovation and entrepreneurship which can fund the winner, as we did for the first fund we received; • use the loan from bank, but we can’t have access to the loan because we do not have hypothec. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013

12. CHAP IV: HOW TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN YOUTH IN AGRIBUSINESS As a young in agribusiness I would like to see the change in the following areas in order to attract and retain other youth in agribusiness: • Increasing the access of the youth to productive courses/trainings of project planning, project implementation and project management for the youth; • Provide mentorship programs to the youth so as to guide them at every stage in becoming agricultural entrepreneurs; • More access to loans and funds; • Organizing experience sharing workshops, study tours, agricultural shows in different countries to encourage the youth in agribusiness. Youth in Agriculture Pre-symposium Workshop Kampala, November 2013