VIHIGA COUNTY SHIFT HIGH GEAR FROM SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE TO AGRIBUSINESS

AGRIPRENEUR MODEL BRIEF – OPERATIONALISATION OF THE MODEL

Vihiga County has rolled out the Agripreneur model as one of the 34 NAVCDP implementing counties. The Agripreneur model will be strategically deployed in all project wards with established community institutions.

A total of 175 Agripreneurs have been onboarded across the 25 wards of Vihiga County. This approach aims to strengthen the program’s impact, promote agricultural growth, improve extension services, and promote economic empowerment at the grassroots level.

This new extension architecture links the agripreneur with the extension officers, farmers and other stakeholders, to promote extension activities on crops and livestock technologies, innovations and management practices to farmers

 

Roles and responsibilities of the Agripreneur

1. Participate in coaching, mentorship programs and sessions as per the program design
2. Act as a key ambassador for smallholder farmers’ empowerment using the Agripreneur’ model
3. Play the central role of consolidating farmers’ agro-inputs, mechanization, and marketing requirements and facilitating transactions for approximately 350 to 500 smallholder farmers within their area of operation in collaboration with the agritechs (business accelerators) and the county.
4. Collaborate with the county teams to develop FFS/ FFBS for learning purposes with support from This will entail close collaboration with the extension linkages lead at national and county.
5. Collaborate with the counties on farmer mobilization, farmer registration collecting additional data as needed to support their innovations, and trainings on behalf of the agritechs and generate reports to the
6. Work with KALRO and the county to disseminate TIMPs and e-Services, as well as validate products/services and capture
7. Report to the agritechs with data that has been validated at county
8. Provide feedback to the county, agritechs, BA on opportunities, gaps and learning that may inform implementation.

Agripreneurs will be working under instructions of Ward Agricultural Extension officers and Ward Livestock Extension officers for 18 months as follows:

1. There will be 7 Agripreneurs in each ward
2. Each Agripreneur will be assigned an enumeration area
3. Each Agripreneur will cover about 300 farmers
4. Motorbikes will support mobility of extension activities, with 5 new bikes added to the existing 20 bikes, covering all the 25 wards of Vihiga County.
5. Remuneration for agripreneurs will be through CDDCs to individual accounts as follows:
6. 1^st month- boot camp – Ksh. 10,000
7. 11 months – Ksh.15,000
8. 6 months – Ksh. 5,000

The Government is providing a platform for agripreneurs to undertake agribusiness. It is expected that after 18 months, the agripreneurs will be fully commercialized (provide their services at a fee).

At the launch, an advance payment of KES 3000/= was released to agripreneurs to facilitate the ongoing BOOT CAMP activities.