David Kizito moved to the United States of America (USA) in 2000 in search for better opportunities.
However, while in the US, he started growing organic traditional vegetables which he sells to Kenyans living abroad.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Kizito, a teacher by profession, relocated to the USA in 2000 in search for a better life for his family and to further his studies.
He was working in Kenya as a teacher but he would be paid Ksh 3,500 per month, money that could not sustain him and his family.
Kizito settled in Seattle.
He later realized that there was unavailability of Kenyan traditional vegetables in the US and decided to venture into vegetable farming.
“Getting Kenyan vegetables like kunde, managu or terere is hard, because even if you go to a grocery shop and ask for these vegetables they have no idea what they are,” Kizito said.
Kizito and a group of other Kenyans formed a group dubbed, Wakulima USA, which helped them acquire parcels of land for farming.
He has a quarter an acre farm on which she cultivates variety of organic vegetables such as kales, sunflower, managu and maize.
“We normally use manure which we source from remote areas and put in our farms. The value of the food is the best compared to processed foods,” Kizito said.
A majority of his clients are Kenyans living in the US.
Although he did not mention his income from vegetables farming, he said he sells a bunch of organic kales for at least Ksh 300.
Organic vegetables is hard to find in the US due to seasonality, the cost of farming, transportation and high demand among other factors.