David & Umit did a lot of research on local farmers, they did interviews with 20 farmers and with 4 agricultural organisations. one of their conclusions was that farmers don't have enough capital to invest in a greenhouse. They contacted another group of students from Delft who had a plan for rentable greenhouses. The university was very enthusiastic about this plan of Laurens Matla, Marc van den Berg & Arwen Matthijssen. The continuation of the business plan of rentable greenhouses will be mainly done by the other group in Bondo.
We will continue the research from David & Umit, they found out that there are farmers now who go to Kisumu or even Nairobi for a course on greenhouse farming, they made a rough list of subjects that should be addressed in the course. These are: finding a good plot for the greenhouse; constructing the greenhouse and watermanagement; choice of crops and fertilizers; sale, marketing and management. We will use these themes as a guide and find out what is the best way to teach each topic.
With the research that the group did last year they made a paper, this paper investigated the problems farmers face with greenhouses and evaluated the problems that occurred more often. We will continue their research and will investigate the topic of capacity building. This research will also be an influence for the course, these both activities should strengthen each other.