Joyce Kamande on Safi Organics: Making Farming Profitable, Not Sexy

From Preneur Today · 01:07:42

Show by Esther Ndeti

Joyce Kamande grew up in a farming community in central Kenya knowing exactly what a bad harvest could mean: less food at home, unpaid school fees and a household whose fortunes could turn on what happened in the field.Her plan was to build a very different life.Instead, a university research project pulled her back into agriculture.First came briquettes. They failed.Then mosquito coils. Those didn’t quite work either.What emerged from those experiments became Safi Organics — a Kenyan company turning agricultural waste into locally produced organic fertiliser.In this episode of Preneur Today, Joyce talks about what it really takes to build an agricultural business around the farmer.We get into product development, failed ideas, farmer trust, local manufacturing, decentralised production, carbon credits, youth in agriculture, capital and the economics of getting fertiliser closer to the people who actually use it.Joyce explains why the farmer gets the final say, why Safi keeps changing its products based on how farmers actually use them, and why climate language means very little if the farmer is not seeing better yields, lower costs and a more profitable farm.We also discuss Safi’s capital journey — from founder capital and grants to debt, equity and its current raise — and why agricultural businesses need investors who understand seasons, working capital and the realities of farming.And perhaps most importantly, Joyce makes a simple argument about the future of agriculture:Farming doesn’t need to be sexy. It needs to be profitable.🎥 Watch the full video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gOCOHkqnRhk?si=TH5tfXGMkYU5uUZ2 🔗 Follow Preneur Today everywhere: https://preneur-today.carrd.co/

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