Ex-guesthouse worker’s dream in agribusiness

Dar es Salaam. Malembo Lucas had a dream of becoming an agribusinessman after completing his diploma course in agriculture six years ago in Kenya.

However, since life is not straightforward, he started working at his friend’s guesthouse in Mwanza to raise capital.

Although he had a prestigious title of a “manager”, he actually almost did everything: washing bed sheets, sweeping rooms and receiving guests.

“I worked for five months without any payment but I did the job well and honestly that many people liked me,” he recalls.

The guesthouse owner also had dairy cattle. Lucas hawked milk too.

“One day the guesthouse owner demanded that he be given Sh105,000 daily from the business and the two of us share the extra income. It was a tough condition, but still I agreed.”

To ensure that costs are cut, he reduced the number of cleaners and guards and personally started doing their jobs. “I started serving tea as an incentive to customers to attract them. I also initiated services such as selling soft drinks at the guesthouse and washing cars, which I also did myself.”

He collected enough money to do his dream job: agribusiness.

He set up a greenhouse at Nyanguge Village in Mwanza but later shifted to Dar es Salaam: in Kigamboni where has five acres for greenhouses. As the business has grown, he has invested more than Sh100 million, hoping to become a billionaire. He expects to recoup the investment in a year.

“In two greenhouses, I have planted tomatoes and bell peppers,” says Lucas. “The first house has 3,500 tomato plants. They can be harvested after 75 days and each plant produces a kilo of tomatoes every week. They are harvested for six months.” His bell pepper greenhouse has 8,000 plants of three varieties: coloured green, yellow and red. When they are mature, he expects to get 8,000 kilos of pepper every week. He will harvest the farm for three or four months.

According to him, a greenhouse protects plants against pests and excessive sunlight.

In greenhouses there are irrigation systems. “The soil in the greenhouse has been covered by a black nylon to protect plants against humidity and weeds,” he says.

He focuses on Kenyan and South African markets, although the challenge is that production is low. Foreign markets need large quantities of produce.

“For example, one Malaysian company needs 78 tonnes of pawpaws every week. To meet the demand, I must have 1,000 acres of a pawpaw farm, something which is difficult in Tanzania. So the foreign market is huge,” he says.

“Tanzania has 29 million hectares which are suitable for irrigation farming, but statistics shows that until 2012 its only 400,0000 hectares were irrigated. People don’t know that they can start agribusiness with a little amount of money and later became millionaires,” he says.

“You don’t necessarily start a greenhouse. You can start a simple garden to vegetables such as spinach and increase production gradually.”

A greenhouse is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass or nets, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.

These structures range from small sheds to industrial-sized buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame. The interior of a greenhouse exposed to sunlight becomes significantly warmer than the external ambient temperature, protecting its contents in cold weather.

He calls on young people to invest in agribusiness to become rich.