Christian is a 27-year-old alumni of Centre de Formation Agricole Frere Remy, which is a SWITCH Africa Green grantee. He has participated in different trainings on sustainable agriculture with a focus on chicken rearing. After his time at Frere Remy, he did not fully grasp the respon- sibility and the skill needed to run a farm.
This has necessitated regular visits by Frere Remy to provide support. Importantly, Christian lives in an isolated place on his own and walks long distances to collect water and food for his chicken. Despite these chal- lenges, from 15 chicks, Christian now has 45 chicken in his farm.
He hopes to improve on the infrastructure for the chicken. He is currently exploring financing opportunities to support his start-up to enable him to scale up. Christian is based in Reposoir, Rodrigues.
Stephen is an agricultural entrepreneur who concen- trates on crop farming but is also interested in florist and general landscaping and gardening. After under- going SWITCH Africa Green training, he started by rearing chicken and grew by diversifying to crops such as red beans, pea- nuts and potatoes. In his farm, he also has a separate section specifically for spices.
Stephen has used the revenues generated from his agribusiness to support his brother (who studied agri- culture) through university education. With his broth- er back, the two now hope to start an online market with delivery service for agricultural products and later expand to exports. They have already purchased a cargo tricycle truck (Apsonic) for delivery services. Stephen is 20 years old and is based in Rodrigues Island.
Rushdie Joomeer is a 16-year-old entrepreneur based in Roseau Rodrigues specializing in crop and animal production. He grows cassava, animal feed, cabbage and creeper plants. He participated in a training at Frere
Remy where he learned various techniques on sustainable agriculture with a focus on pig rearing. From this, he set up a compost bin for manure where he uses fig waste as fertilizer for crop production. Rushdie’s biggest investment has been in pig rearing. (He used his neighbour’s boar for breeding making him have a sow and 7 piglets).
Before SWITCH Africa Green intervention, Rushdie had no skills with which to make a living or run a business. Having 7 piglets, he has been able to sell one pig and replicate the training at home in his grandmother’s farm. This has made him more responsible, earning him respect within his family which is impressive at his age. He hopes to upscale to 20 pigs in future and venture into crop farming.
