Introducing FARMIS Kenya to HomaBay County

Poor record keeping has been cited as one of the major challenges many farmers in Kenya face in management of their farms, as many of them are unaware about the importance and value of record and information management.

This will be done through the introduction of Farm Record Management Information System – Kenya (FARMIS Kenya). FARMIS Kenya is run by Sokopepe Ltd, a social enterprise under license from Fit Uganda. FARMIS seeks to be the leading provider of ICT business solutions for farmers in East Africa by transforming the way farmers carry out record keeping.

The tested system enables farmers to capture a farmers profile and record all their farming enterprises capturing costs of tilling, inputs, labour, harvesting and post-harvest operations for crops and similar records for livestock. By doing that a farm’s total productivity is documented and farmers are able to extract a profit and loss statement at the end of each season.

It comes with various benefits such as: improved automated record keeping, current market information, enhanced access to credit facilities, evidence-based decision making, access to 24 hour online platform, opportunity for group produce marketing, seasonal farm books provided for reference, market linkages to buyers and sellers and access to relevant farming tips.

“Proper record keeping is important as it will help you to know whether you are making a profit or loss. When you keep your records well it will be easier to monitor your farming activities, determine which business line in your farm is breaking and even the ones that are eating into your profit margins,” said Mwangi - Sokopepe LTD at a launch event in Laikipia.

FARMIS will allow farmers to jointly coordinate a number of related activities at the farm, supported by data analysis, storage, and retrieval for possible linkages to partners or stakeholders.

Registered farmers will purchase a Farm Book at Kshs. 850 per year for better records keeping and management. The system will also generate interactive reports like ledger reports, profit and loss accounts and balance sheet.

“Every year a farmer will be able to receive a progress report on his farming activities. Formalizing your farm records will help you as a farmer to improve your economic gains and increase profits,” said Mwangi. He added: “Effective record keeping and information management is key to the running of a successful agri-business. Good record keeping can help a farmer to track his expenses and determine the ‘financial sinks’ in the farm.”

Currently in Ndhiwa, we are performing primary farmers profiling at no fee and we are targeting over 2000 farmers possibly by September 2014. If you are a farmer no matter you scale of production, please do not let this opportunity slip out of your arms. The exercise is on going and if we do not manage to reach you, please reach us via Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre. For more information click Farmis Kenya Site

First Aid Awareness Training at Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre

With the current job competition in Kenya, qualifications keep on varying from one subject to the other. Things have now changed from the concentrated ICT skills and now having First Aid skills is being the order of the day in most industries and technical jobs.
On 3rd June 2014, Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre was glad to host a team from First Aid Africa on a four hour training of the 30 youths during their first aid awareness campaign. Being fresh from school, most of these youths had never received an opportunity to embed their future carriers apart from the free basic ICT training offered by ALIN.
The major intention onto why First Aid Africa offering this course is not for the teams to acquire jobs, but it is a matter of them being aware on how to save a life whenever an incident calls for. The key aims of first aid can be summarized in three key points:-

Preserve life: the overriding aim of all medical care, including first aid, is to save lives and minimize the threat of death.

Prevent further harm: also sometimes called prevent the condition from worsening, or danger of further injury, this covers both external factors, such as moving a patient away from any cause of harm, and applying first aid techniques to prevent worsening of the condition, such as applying pressure  to stop a bleed becoming dangerous.

Promote recovery: first aid also involves trying to start the recovery process from the illness or injury, and in some cases might involve completing a treatment, such as in the case of applying a plaster to a small wound.

First aid training also involves the prevention of initial injury and responder safety, and the treatment phases. So far through the Maarifa Centre, we have been able to organize training access to over 200 community members for the past four years. We thank First Aid Africa team for their partnership commitment.