On the road to validate fact sheets with our Kenyan trainees near Nairobi we got lost and had to call a farmer to get directions. Five minutes later one of the mushroom farming couples arrive in their car and invite us to follow them to their house. Kahinju Muhia and his wife Catherine are friendly and personable, but I am mostly struck by how young they are.

They have been growing button mushrooms for five years as their key business and they are delighted with it. They grow mushrooms in their garden, inside a 2 meter by 3 meter mud house. The shelves hold about 400 plastic bags full of composted and sterilized straw on which button mushrooms will grow.

Kahinju’s slightly elder brother Pius lives next door with his wife Ann Njambi. Ann learned about mushroom cultivation at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. While Pius had a good job at British American Tobacco, when he saw his wife’s new mushroom business grow, he decided to quit his white-collar job and joined the family enterprise. Ever since, Pius has been looking at the general management, marketing and sales of mushrooms.

While Pius explains the different steps involved, Ann is busy turning the heap of composted straw, on each layer adding a handful of lime and muriate of potash fertilizer.

“The lime will stabilize the acidity and the fertilizer will make the mushrooms grow better,� says Ann smilingly. With her nicely polished nails, she is clearly an educated lady, but one who is not afraid to get her hands dirty and to get the work done.

Young farmers are creative and know where money can be made. Apart from selling mushrooms, Pius and his brother’s family also started training other interested farmers. For one day training they charge 2500 Ksh (20 Euro) per person and for 4 sessions a month 7500 Ksh (60 Euro). They also know that mushrooms cannot grow without good and sterile substrate, so they have turned this need into another rural enterprise: in a small, specially-designed building they sterilize the enriched, decomposed straw and sell 5 kg bags to the farmers whom they have trained at 250 Ksh (2 Euro).

“Many people think that farming is for old people,� says Pius, “but they are wrong.�

And Pius knows what he is talking about. Family farming can be profitable for young people, even on a small piece of land. With useful knowledge and commitment to work, people like Pius and Ann are turning family farming into a business, in Kenya and elsewhere.