Kelvin Karnesos runs Fitatu Farms in central Zambia with his family across multiple generations. He explains how John Deere equipment and financing made their operation possible and why the local farming community matters to their success.
My name is Kelvin Karnesos. We are in central Zambia, Mikushi farming block on Whitatu Farms. Whitatu Enterprises started in 2015. We started renting land on the other side of Mkushi and came to what is now Fitatu Farm two years ago. We do mainly row cropping and cereals and we also do beef production and goat stud herd as well. I came back in 2012 back to the farming block to work with my dad and then in 2015 I decided to make a go of it on my own. So we started Futato Enterprises. Family and generations and legacy is a huge thing in agriculture. Farms don't develop over a single generation, they take multiple generations to develop. So hence the name behind Whitatu. I think farming in our generation is slightly different to two generations ago. Like I said earlier, we are so blessed as a third generation to come back. The first generation that came back here there was no access to simple finance. So I don't think we can complain too much as a third or fourth generation coming back here. The John Deere machinery, it's known throughout the world as quality machinery. Our main objective is to work with machinery that has good, long lasting quality and that can take us from generation to generation. They also have a very wide variety of machinery that can work and assist us in everything that we're trying to do. John Deere Finance have come on board and they've made it so much easier. They've streamlined the process. They've sort of come as almost like a guarantee between the banks and the farmers and the interest rates help hugely. The old way of doing VAFs or vehicle asset finance was a laborious process but with John Deere Finance coming on board and with the ease of the streamlining of the whole process has made a huge difference, a huge, huge difference to getting facilities approved for finance and that is crucial to our operations. We're lucky that we've got AFGRI in this area. To have a corporation like AFGRI in an area like Makushi is hugely helpful. It's a fact on its own that AFGHIA has got the largest sort of market share within Zambia because of their backup and the historical backup that they've had. Without them we wouldn't be with Zambia, put it that way. We've always been Zambia and I say we as myself and my fiance Amy. We've grown up here while we've been educated in South Zambia has always been home for us. So we are, we dedicated to this place and I mean everything that we make gets put back into the farm. So we are trying to develop with a long term view. I think that is the only way to do it successfully. We've been very, very blessed with the community, obviously, growing up here our whole lives. We know the community really well, but we've got a fantastic community. I mean, growing up in a farming community is something special. Everyone is your uncle or your aunt or your tani or your, um. When we first moved to this farm, our neighbour came and helped us plant 200 hectares our first year without us even asking because he knew what it's like to start. I phone my neighbours almost on a weekly basis as well to get advice from them and yeah, hopefully we can pass that on. I think it's a good way to live. Sam.
