She stands amongst erect tomato plants taller than her,
holding four fruits in her left hand and spotting a huge smile, happy with the
success of her produce.
Her name is Maria Zaloumis a 32 year old trained nurse and cardiologist
who recently abandoned her medical career to become a “Tomato Queen” exercising
her passion for entrepreneurship through farming.
Maria’s entry into farming was after completion of her education
in Australia returning to the family farm that only had a half hectare of
tomatoes and an ailing father unable to manage it. Armed with a few savings from
her school days and her parents’ 40 hectare land Maria set out on the agric
path with only one goal; to succeed.
She has managed to expand the operation from half a hectare
of tomatoes to 13 hectares from which she harvests between 250 and 400 boxes
everyday giving her approximately daily revenue of K12, 500 at the lowest price
of K50 per box.
“I am the type of woman who loves challenges. I needed a
change in my life because I have an entrepreneurial mind as being in medicine
and nursing you always work for someone so I wanted to work for myself,” she
says in response to a question on what inspired her to give up a prestigious job
for farming.
Maria says her start was on expanding the half hectare of tomatoes
by planting 13,000 plants with huge returns being re-invested in the business
for further expansion. For young people
wishing to get in to farming, her advice is for them to raise capital through
savings and downscale their lives.
“Young people with 9 to 5 jobs should save up some money to
raise capital and also adjust their lives I had to did with my life through
cutting down a lot of things. I am not on a salary from the time I started as I
put back all the monies I make for expansion so I have not benefited much from
this venture so that I secure a better future,” she says adding that “building a business empire takes time so
I have given myself two years to be on a salary. The first two to five years
depending on how big you want to grow you won’t get a salary because you
getting the money meant to expand to look after yourself, so it’s either you
grow yourself or grow your business.”
Current operations
The 40 ha farm is slowly becoming small for her vision hence
she is looking at a second farm to expand operations. Currently Maria has
dedicated 13 ha for tomatoes, 8 ha for maize meant for her cows, some grazing
pasture and about 20 beds for rape meant to service bills for chemicals which
she gets from some company.
Her venture has since created 32 jobs, 25 full time, two
taking care of her cattle and four guards of which two take up the night shifts
and two day shifts.
“I take good care of my workers especially my women because
they mean a lot to me and I give make them to run the farm once a week,” she
notes.
Lessons learnt
“I have learnt a lot from farming the short period I have
been in it. Tomato prices got depressed in January and they were like that for
about three months during which we went through a hard time until recently when
they started picking up,” narrates Maria.
Among key lessons Maria says she has learnt about farming is
financial discipline. She says tomato farming especially requires high level
of financial discipline because all anticipated fortunes from the crop can be
overturned over night by diseases like Tuta absoluta which recently raked havoc
among many farmers.
Maria adds that she has also learnt to be focused and
consistent because the two are key weapons in one’s success as doing the same
thing every day makes one become better at it.
“When you do something as a young person, do it very well, you
may not be recognized by your bosses but other people and eventually doors
open. So put your heart into it through being focused and consistent,” she
says.
Land availability
With the latest trends indicating that many young people are
developing interest to venture into agriculture, land acquisition remains a
major challenge because of the complexities and high costs involved. Land remains
a key factor of production in agriculture and its proximity to town makes it
more expensive. Thus Maria observes that “the deeper you go, the cheaper land
gets” a statement which makes that land in the outskirts of town which people
are avoiding is cheap.
True to the Tomato Queen’s words many Zambians want land
that is close to town which is however very expensive and beyond the
affordability of an average young Zambian, worse still youths wishing to try
their luck at a sector set to create the next generation of self made
millionaires.
Maria advices government to develop a scheme for young
people wishing to venture into agriculture which will provide them with
incentives that will see them easily access land. In addition Maria is appealing to government to
consider developing ways of funding young people involved in the sector through
loans or grants subject to serious scrutiny of their credit background.
Five year projection
“It is positive at the moment and a lot of people are
getting into farming as seen on social media. I see Zambia feeding itself in
five years time,” observes Maria.
However Maria is quick to emphasize the need for crop
diversification among new entrants in the sector.
“Just because I grow tomatoes and it is lucrative for me
does not mean that everyone getting in agriculture should grow tomatoes. Young
people should look at other fields of agriculture such as production of fruits
which is not common in Zambia,” she says.
In wrapping up our interview the tomato queen says farming is
not an easy thing but with focus and consistency it is doable for young people.
She says the best time to venture into farming is now for young people because
of the high energy.
Her final words are; “You don’t need a lot of money to start
farming, even just 5,000 plants on a small field and then you start expanding
with time.”
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