Millicent Okumu doesn’t go away you questioning whether or not she believes what she is saying. She speaks with vitality, with readability about whom she is constructing for. Ask the place the corporate is heading, and there may be little hesitation; ask whether or not she’s going to nonetheless be working it in ten years, and the reply isn’t any.
By then, she expects Agriflex, the Kenyan agricultural enterprise she co-founded, to be working in at the least 5 African international locations, to be sustainably worthwhile, and to be led by someone else. She would possibly take an advisory function. For now, nevertheless, the corporate occupies even the hours she supposedly spends away from it. At household gatherings, unfinished duties observe her into the room.
Her father, a civil servant and farmer, raised cattle and grew sufficient meals to help family past his family. She was shut to him, however much less enthusiastic in regards to the farm. She averted agriculture in school and college, solely to discover herself back in it by means of a logistics job at iProcure in 2017.
Now she sells farm inputs, deploys spraying drones and listens to farmers clarify why a intelligent piece of technology might be of little use to them. That final half has meant slowing down plans and turning away traders.
“We are in 2026,” she says. “We are no longer in 2006.”
She is impatient for progress, however more and more specific about what counts as progress, and who advantages.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
If I had met you at ten years previous and requested what you wished to change into, what would you’ve got mentioned? Would that lady recognise the girl sitting right here at this time?
I wouldn’t have identified precisely what I wished to change into, however I used to be already very decided and impressive.
I used to be a daddy’s lady, all the time following my father round and taking an curiosity in no matter he was doing. Even when he was discussing severe issues, I wished to be there. Although I wasn’t the firstborn, I used to be typically the particular person he delegated duties to.
I couldn’t have advised you that I’d find yourself doing what I do at this time, however I knew I’d be highly effective in a method or one other.
What did cash appear like within the residence you grew up in? Was it one thing folks mentioned overtly, apprehensive about quietly, or anticipated you to exit and discover?
Money wasn’t one thing we mentioned overtly, however we didn’t have to exit on the lookout for it both. My father was a civil servant who additionally beloved farming. There was sufficient to maintain us.
That modified when he died, simply after I had completed Form Four. Suddenly, I had to exit and discover cash. I began working at a younger age and determining how to maintain all people, together with myself.
Money then grew to become one thing we mentioned overtly as a result of we had to work out how to make do with the little I used to be incomes.
Your background is in logistics and provide chains. What occurred that made agriculture private sufficient for you to construct a enterprise round it?
Agriculture had all the time been a part of my life. My father had loads of cattle and land, and farming fed our household, our prolonged household and even different folks within the village.
He was specific about getting licensed seeds. He would convey them from Kisumu or journey to Homa Bay city to purchase them. We all went to the farm, though I used to be the one who wasn’t significantly eager on it. My father knew that, however he additionally recognised that I had different strengths.
In highschool, I averted agriculture. At college, I averted it once more. Then, in 2017, agriculture got here calling.
I had been working in logistics when iProcure approached me. The firm had raised funding and wanted somebody to arrange its logistics division. I joined in October 2017, and that modified every little thing.
The work uncovered me to a lot, and I grew to like it. By the time I made a decision to go away, I knew I wished to proceed working in agriculture.
Take me back to the primary farmer you tried to persuade to work with Agriflex. What did they ask that your marketing strategy hadn’t ready you for?
To be sincere, recruiting farmers and agro-dealers wasn’t significantly troublesome due to the relationships we had constructed at iProcure. People knew us and understood what we may do for them.
But one farmer requested a query that stayed with us: “Millicent and Isaac, you know we need inputs, and you are giving us access to them and advice. But what happens after that?”
Isaac is my co-founder and handles industrial actions and operations. What the farmer was asking us about was the marketplace for their produce. We had been supporting manufacturing, however the challenges didn’t finish there.
That made us take into consideration how we may assist farmers discover patrons. We now have a plan to help a few of them with that. We don’t need to assist them by means of manufacturing after which go away them hanging, whilst we proceed rolling out different elements of the enterprise.
You work with drones and traceability instruments. How do you clarify what you do to a relative who interrupts midway by means of and asks, “But Millicent, what exactly do you sell?”
I begin with what’s best to perceive: I promote seeds to farmers and agro-dealers. I additionally promote crop-protection merchandise, together with agrochemicals and foliar feeds. Those are issues folks recognise and use, even back at residence.
Then I clarify that we’re serving to farmers transfer away from manually spraying their farms. With a drone, we will spray an acre in a minute. Instead of utilizing 100 litres of water per acre, we will use about 10 litres.
We are making the work simpler, decreasing the time farmers spend on these duties and serving to them farm extra effectively. We are in 2026. We are not in 2006.
Tell me a few time a farmer checked out one thing you had been happy with and successfully mentioned, “That is clever, but it won’t work here.” What did you do subsequent?
That occurred with the expertise facet of the enterprise. Agriflex is technology-enabled, and we have now been considering rigorously about how expertise can complement our work and enhance what we provide farmers.
Initially, we wished to launch a cellular app with a number of options, together with illness detection and proposals on which inputs to use.
But whenever you exit to the farms, you encounter sensible issues. The web connection is poor, or there is no such thing as a community in any respect. Many farmers additionally already recognise the widespread pests and illnesses affecting the crops they develop repeatedly, akin to maize and beans.
They advised us: “If this is what your app will do, it won’t solve my immediate problem.”
What they wished was entry to fundamental, sensible details about farming with out having to look forward to us to organise a coaching session or demonstration. They had been already utilizing WhatsApp. Could we make the knowledge they wanted accessible? Could we begin there, register them after which construct on that relationship?
That suggestions made us decelerate. We had wished to introduce the expertise instantly, however we listened to farmers and agro-dealers and solely rolled it out this 12 months.
It additionally meant saying no to some traders who wished expertise to be the precedence. The suggestions from the sphere was telling us one thing completely different, and we determined to observe that.
Who pays Agriflex, and for what? Where does the farmer’s achieve finish and your margin start?
Two teams pay us: agro-dealers and farmers. A big proportion of our income comes from agro-dealers, whom we provide in bulk.
We need to attain as many smallholder farmers as attainable, however we can’t attain all of them instantly. Working by means of agro-dealers permits us to serve extra farmers by means of companies they already purchase from.
Farmers may also stroll into our two shops, in Molo and Ol Kalou, and purchase instantly from us. Currently, they pay for inputs and drone companies. We additionally launched soil testing a few month in the past.
We negotiate higher buying and selling phrases with producers, which permits us to supply reasonably priced costs to farmers and agro-dealers whereas incomes a margin.
Trust, reliability and affordability have been crucial to us. Agro-dealers want to know that we are going to provide them reliably, and each they and the farmers want costs that work for them.
What is the most costly assumption you’ve got made on this enterprise, and the way lengthy did it take you to admit it was flawed?
There was a challenge we took on early within the enterprise that seemed very profitable. On paper, every little thing steered it could work. Based on the knowledge we had acquired and the assumptions we had made, it seemed like a superb alternative.
But it didn’t work out as we anticipated.
It took us three months to agree that we wanted to cease. We had to settle for that it wasn’t working, minimize it off and transfer on.
When folks discuss empowering girls farmers, the language can change into very polished. Tell me about one lady whose expertise pressured you to change how Agriflex operates.
There is a lady farmer with about 50 acres that she crops each season. We had been supplying her with inputs, however spending time on her farm confirmed us how rather more help she wanted.
Spraying even 20 acres concerned a number of staff over a number of days. She had to be there supervising, and there was a 2,000-litre water tank on the farm. After all that work, the prices had been nonetheless very excessive.
It made us ask what the help supplied by means of empowerment programmes really modifications. Does it scale back the time a lady spends on the farm? Does it scale back the sources she has to put into it?
With the drone, we accomplished the spraying in about half-hour.
That expertise made us pause and rethink our priorities. Instead of concentrating solely on recruiting extra clients, we wanted to look extra carefully at how we supported those we already had. That applies to our agro-dealers too.
We have additionally supported her with discovering a marketplace for her produce, although that isn’t the core of our enterprise.
For me, empowerment means making somebody’s life simpler in methods they will really see and expertise.
Have you ever walked into a gathering and realised you’d have to show your self earlier than anybody would talk about your small business? How did you deal with the room?
Yes. Sometimes folks say: “When you said you were Millicent, and we heard what you were doing, we expected someone older and bigger.”
They knew they had been assembly a lady, however I nonetheless didn’t appear like the particular person they’d imagined. Then comes the query: why ought to they belief that I perceive what I’m doing?
What has labored for me is figuring out my enterprise inside out. I would like to perceive each facet of it, together with the numbers.
I additionally draw on my expertise. I’ve performed this work earlier than, and I’m happy with what I achieved. I’m not going into it blindly. I’ve a blueprint and a few understanding of what is going to work and what received’t.
When you possibly can clarify that clearly, folks start to pay attention. How you carry your self into the room issues too. They might have arrived with assumptions, however you may give them causes to rethink.
What has been your closest encounter with giving up? What occurred, who did you name, and what made you come the subsequent morning?
There have been a number of moments, however I’d concentrate on fundraising. My co-founder and I’ve appreciable expertise within the enterprise itself. We perceive the work. Funding has been tougher.
Sometimes conversations progress very effectively, and you start to count on a constructive final result. You have plans prepared and are getting ready to get issues transferring. Then the suggestions comes: “Let’s pause. Let’s wait.”
You end up asking: wait till when?
It can go away you feeling so dejected that you simply ponder whether to proceed and why you’re doing it in any respect.
The particular person I name is all the time my co-founder, Isaac. I inform him issues aren’t going as I believed they’d, and we speak by means of it.
What brings us back is the folks we have now served. Despite the challenges, there was a lot pleasure within the journey.
One lady advised us that beforehand, her farm hadn’t produced sufficient surplus to assist with faculty charges. Last 12 months, after placing apart meals for her family, she had sufficient left to pay faculty charges for her two youngsters. She was so comfortable.
Stories like that make us really feel we have now to hold going.
We even have to stay versatile and regulate shortly when issues change. Having a co-founder who understands that we’re constructing for the long run makes the journey simpler.
What are you want when issues go flawed? If I requested your co-founder, would he describe the identical particular person you’re about to describe?
Definitely. He would inform you that Millicent could be very robust and really strict. But he would additionally inform you that I’m essentially the most constructive particular person.
When one thing goes flawed, I’m often the one saying there have to be a superb facet to it. We won’t see it instantly, however maybe we are going to perceive it tomorrow.
Then I transfer shortly to the subsequent query: what will we do now? We can’t keep in the identical place, going over what has occurred.
He would inform you I’m robust, but in addition that I’m the one who says: “This is temporary. Give it time. Let’s focus on what we can do next.”
What does the enterprise get from you that the folks closest to you typically have to go with out?
My time. The enterprise will get a lot of my time.
Even when I’m not working, it’s on the back of my thoughts. I will be at a household occasion and instantly keep in mind one thing I used to be supposed to do.
These days, I hold notes. If one thing happens to me when I’m doing one thing else, I write it down so I can return to it later.
I could be someplace doing one thing utterly unrelated to Agriflex, however Agriflex remains to be there in my ideas. It takes loads of my time and psychological vitality.
You have acquired recognition to your work. After the pictures and congratulations, which drawback is often nonetheless ready in your desk? Has an award ever helped you remedy it?
The drawback is all the time getting the fitting inputs to our clients on the proper time. Whether I’m within the discipline, receiving an award or talking someplace, that want stays.
You can by no means appear to have sufficient. The extra you possibly can provide, the extra clients want from you.
Awards have helped by giving us recognition and credibility. Some traders perceive how rigorous specific programmes or award processes are. When they know you’ve got gone by means of these phases, it may possibly make the dialog simpler and the method quicker, even when you don’t finally get the reply you hoped for.
Recognition has additionally helped us meet traders who’re a greater match. One of our largest fundraising challenges early on was being within the flawed rooms with the flawed traders.
Some awards and programmes present persevering with help. For instance, the ladies entrepreneurs award we acquired by means of AGRA final month comes with help that continues past the award itself. These programmes can have a look at completely different features of the enterprise and suggest issues that assist us enhance.
Some awards additionally include cash, which matches into the enterprise.
So sure, they’ve helped: by means of credibility, connections, monetary help and ongoing steering.
Suppose we meet once more over lunch in ten years. What would have to be true about Agriflex, and about your life exterior it, for you to say, “Adonijah, this was worth it”?
I take into consideration development in a different way now. We need managed development.
In ten years, I would really like us to be working effectively in at the least 5 African international locations. By then, I don’t count on to be the CEO.
I would like the enterprise to be working totally, with another person main it whereas I maybe serve in an advisory function.
I would really like Agriflex to be recognised in Kenya, throughout Africa and internationally as an organization that has been resilient and change into sustainably worthwhile.
That would give me pleasure: seeing another person take the reins and proceed constructing an excellent enterprise.
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