The farm based on trust, Koblenz Germany
1 min readA walk in Koblenz, Germany takes you to a farmer who does sunflowers among other flowers in a unique way. The farm sells the flowers by itself on the basis of trust. The farmer basically does all the land preparation, planting but the customers do the harvesting and the paying! How? Well the business only shows how trustworthy and honest the community is, the price per stick is advertised on a poest at the farm and a money box attached where if you need a bunch of 10 sunflowers at 1 Euro each, you just cut and place the money therein.
The lesson drawn? The price of a cutting there is one euro, equivalent to 120kshs per piece. This shows how much a small holder farmer is valued in such a community and raises the question, Just how much do we value farmers in our society? What relevant policies are in place for small holder farmers? Are they treated as entrepreneurs?
The second lesson comes in, the need for ethics and basic morals. What really happened to Kenya, can you imagine what would happen to such a model of business if it came to Kenya. Where is the turning point and how do we solve these challenges that small holder farmers face in Kenya.