GREKKON LIMITED 5 years of excellence in providing irrigation systems
By STEVEN MULANDA
When two minds conglomerate together in pursuit of business opportunities, great things happen resulting to success. This is the scintillating story of Wamae Mwangi and Erastus Matete who envisioned the establishment of a one stop shop for provision of irrigation systems to carter for small holder farmers. This was after seeing small scale farmers play a second fiddle to large scale farming enterprises while sourcing for irrigation systems by existing companies.
With this in mind, Grekkon limited was born five years ago and it has been on an upward trajectory from operating in a small office in Westlands, Nairobi to establishing seven branches spread across Kenya to reach the ordinary farmers doorsteps.The branches are in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nyeri, Meru, Nyahururu and Mombasa.
Besides providing the best irrigation systems services, the duo are trained agronomists. The agronomy services were only available to large scale farmers by large multinationals companies selling irrigation kits. With this, they also saw the need to support commercial rural smallholder farmers by offering agronomy services. They train on soil preparation, beds preparation, manuring, fertiliser application and taking care of the crops until farmers’ first harvest. This they do on a free basis as long as a farmer purchases the products from Grekkon.
Other services they offer include: Drip irrigation kits, Rain gun sprinklers, HDPE and PVC pipes and fittings, Dam liners, Greenhouses, Agriculture nets, Water pumps, Borehole drilling, Seedling trays and coco peat, Silage making and mulch polythene.
In 2019, during the Agribusiness Excellence Awards, Grekkon Limited was voted ‘Most Preferred Irrigation Systems Company in Kenya’. This award not only raised the company’s profile to the public but also cemented the company’s reputation as being the best irrigation company in Kenya. Since then, the company grew tremendously in size and operations.
“Initially before venturing into this field, we used to sell seeds while we were employed and most of our colleagues when they hanged up their boots, sort green pastures in the same field. Our passion was not in selling seeds, because during our stint in employment, there is a friend of ours who brought to us greenhouse materials to sell for him and we sold everything within a short period of time; that is where our passion for a one stop company for irrigation systems was birthed,” Erastus Matete one of the Directors at Grekkon said.
In the quest for home grown innovative solutions for Kenya’s smallholder farmers, Grekkon pioneered a rain hose irrigation kit. The kit is 3 years old since it was introduced and it has become a darling to many farmers in the country. It is a pipe that is perforated with small holes and it usually laid on the ground to evacuate water upwards and sideways. It has been combined to function in a drip and sprinkler irrigation manner. “We have positioned the kit to work in both crops which are favorable to drip irrigation as well as sprinkler. The kit has become a hot cake and we are getting good orders even from outside the country. We have a customer from Rwanda who got wind of us, placed an order and we delivered the kit in a timely manner,” Wamae said.
In addition to the rain hose kit, Grekkon are the premier natural solar dryers’ designer and installer for farmers who sell dried foods to international markets and local retail markets. The dryers’ are constructed from food grade material, they are environmentally friendly and enhance energy conservation. They are popular to small scale farmers carrying value addition, and they dry 4 to 5 times as fast as open air draining.
“There is also a new product namely ‘Drip clean’ that we will be launching soon. It is a dissolving and solubilising agent for use in drip and fertigation systems. Its core function is to dissolve precipitates that clog drip lines. These three main products; rain hose kit, solar dryer and drip clean are our new innovations that have brought about a change in the market,’’ Wamae stated.
In a continent where 85 percent of the food comes from smallholder agriculture the company’s future looks bright. They plan to open more branches in Kenya and in the greater East African region.This is being stimulated by the fact that they are getting more clients and they are also undertaking major projects around East African region.
“The opportunities in agriculture are plenty, arable land in Kenya is shrinking due to development of real estate and there are tremendous openings in arid and semi-arid areas for irrigation purposes. Anyone with intentions of joining farming can come in but should note that this is not a field of quick money making; there is need of being focused, not to reach a point and then divert to other things. This is where most people normally get it wrong; getting new plans and ambitions is disastrous, should stick to the original plan, “Erastus expounded.
