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Scaling in Action

Jessee Kamutu runs JEKAM Enterprises. Jessee, previously a smallholder farmer, started a potato multiplication Farmers’ Hub with his wife Mary Mwihaki about 5 years ago. With support from CIP (the International Potato Centre) and the Syngenta Foundation’s Agriservices and Seeds2B PASTTA programs, he has a clean production facility for potato mini tubers grown from apical cuttings. Now he and his 10 employees help farmers across the region with access to soil testing, mechanisation services, market access for their produce, and quality inputs. Supported farmers are more than doubling yields and incomes. He has moved from being a farmer to a business manager, leading a network of other 30 Farmer Hubs, supporting close to 10,000 smallholders with such integrated services. With Jessee’s and Mary’s diligence, they have achieved inspirational success and have built a small training hall in which they train the Farmer Hub managers and farmers. With the reach, he has attracted the attention from universities, research organizations, market players, and banks, eager to support his further growth and farmer engagement. He and several colleagues have formed a cooperative to further spread the benefits of their experience. Scaling in action. Still, he and his community have unmet needs including improved mechanisation access and affordability, better water catchment systems, improved medium-range weather forecasts, and increased availability of non-mineral or chemical fertilizers.

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