Gerishom Boiyo is proof of the great things you can achieve if you just have confidence and passion. With no substantive information communication technology (ICT) training but a passion and interest in online tools, not only has he led an online campaign that has seen interest in farming skyrocket amongst rural youth in Western Kenya, he’s also about to launch an online marketplace for agricultural products that will help youthful farmers buy and sell their produce while networking exchanging ideas and contacts.

As the ICT officer at the ACK Western Region Christian Community Services (affiliated with the Anglican Church of Kenya), Gerishom has over 4 years experience working with youth in agriculture, helping them increase their productivity and access to markets using various ICTs. While he has been working with farmers for a while, he only started introducing ICTs in 2011.

Gerishom Boiyo is proof of the great things you can achieve if you just have confidence and passion. With no substantive information communication technology (ICT) training but a passion and interest in online tools, not only has he led an online campaign that has seen interest in farming skyrocket amongst rural youth in Western Kenya, he’s also about to launch an online marketplace for agricultural products that will help youthful farmers buy and sell their produce while networking exchanging ideas and contacts.

As the ICT officer at the ACK Western Region Christian Community Services (affiliated with the Anglican Church of Kenya), Gerishom has over 4 years experience working with youth in agriculture, helping them increase their productivity and access to markets using various ICTs. While he has been working with farmers for a while, he only started introducing ICTs in 2011.

He has attended various forums where he has shared about adoption of various ICTs in agriculture. He says that when it comes to ICTs and media, video has proved to be of the greatest impact to the farmers he works with. Farmers have been able to visually relate to the trainings they have undergone as opposed to other media like radio which they saw to be abstract,  leading to greater numbers of farmers participating in the video learning sessions.

Gerry’s passion is to enable rural communities in Western Kenya (Mt. Elgon) to adopt ICTs in support of their farming and income-generating activities. Working for IICD’s programme with the Anglican Development Services in Western Region, he has taken to understanding exactly how different ICT tools can address information and communication gaps in the value chains relevant to the communities he supports.

Working from a distance was not an option for him; he wanted to check his assumptions underlying the ICT-enabled interventions and tailor the tools to meet specific usage needs of his community members – young, old, male or female.

The work has shown amazing results: interest in engaging in farming has grown considerably, especially among rural youth, with membership of his farmer groups growing exponentially as well as local producer organizations incorporating the use of ICTs structurally in their work.

Gerry’s grassroots approach has yielded valuable insights into lesser known aspects of the intersection of technology and rural agricultural development, most prominently his work on understanding how ICTs influence youth’s motivation to engage in agriculture (as documented in this research study) and his reflections on gender dynamics in technology-supported agriculture (an interview on this can be read here, and a research publication is forthcoming in July 2015). Gerry works with public and private agriculture and technology stakeholders in his endeavours to incorporate the use of ICTs by the larger rural Kenyan community. 

Out of work and when not experimenting with different ICT tools, Gerry likes watching documentaries, reading African novels and travelling. Just like any other youths, he has time to relax and do the things he likes. “Working with farmers in agriculture has enabled me to do so many things that I enjoy,” he says.

Gerry is an example of how youth can succeed in agriculture. His expectation as a mentee is to learn how best to navigate the tech-business environment and eventually launch his platform to aid farmers in their respective value chains. His efforts are worth emulating.