Julius and Zaid Picking out new seedlings for the Tower
The team is back to work on the ground in Kenya! Zaid and Jessica got right to work meeting up with Julius and picking out some new seedlings to try out in the tower. The tower that Julius has been taking care of for the past year is still working great and has some very healthy Skuma Wiki plants, whose roots extend all the way to the bottom of the basin. After transplanting the new seedlings Julius told us, "Last week it flooded and the winds were very heavy. Many people had planted thier seeds and they were washed away. The tower was fine, it was not effected at all." We are very glad to hear that it is working well for him and his family and are excited to bring more towers to families all over Kenya!
Second Place in Ag Spring Board
April 5th, 2019
Jessica and Zaid Accepting thier Prize at the AgSpring Board Banquet
This week Inakua competed agianst three other agriculturly minded teams in a pitch competition at Penn State University, hosted by the College of Agriculture. Each team gave a live 20 minute pitch to the Ag Spring Board Judges and answered questions pertaining to thier venture. Inakua received second place and was awarded $2,500. This money will go directly towards the soft launch of Inakua happening in Kenya during May of 2019. We will be shipping 4 Hydroponic towers to Kisumu, Kenya and giving them to some more families in the Bright LIght area.
Inakua is Competing in AgSpringoard 2019
March 23rd, 2019
Inakua is competing with other agriculturaly minded buisness venture to earn funding for the company to launch in May this Summer. The winner will recieve up to $7,000USD from the Penn State School of Agriculture. We have submitted a 5 minute video pitch which you can watch at the video of us explianing our buisness model in the player above.
Julius' Tower Progress
September 23rd, 2018
One Month after the Seedling Transplants
Its been one Month since Julius Opati began using one of our Hydroponic Tower prototypes and he has seen great results. Eairlier today Julius posted a picture of his tower on Facebook saying "This is the way to go #hydroponicmanenos". He has told us that he finds the tower much more reliable that his garden and it has even produced excess vegtables. We cant wait to see howhis tower continues to grow and are looking forward to meeting up with him agian when we return to Kisumu in May of next year.
Check Out this Article Written About us!
May 20th, 2018
Jessica Plugging Leaks in the Tower Prototype with Plaster.
The Inakua team heads out of town to check on their local hydroponics tower installation at a friend’s home. “Inakua is working to use low-cost hydroponics to reduce food insecurities in East Africa. The system allows farmers to grow food, no matter how erratic the rainy season,” explains team member Jessica Novis. The team stops along the way, picking up a few seedlings for planting. Nestled in a corner of a gated housing complex, Inakua’s hydroponics tower system stands some eight feet tall, made up of a vertical pipe holding a variety of vegetables, seated in a large drum of water, a few wires linking it to a nearby solar panel. The team reacts with excitement — their vegetables have grown significantly since the day before.
Read more at: sites.psu.edu/hese/inakua/
Learning From th Locals
May 18th, 2018
Jessica and Ellis learning about the Suply Chain of Seedlings
We spent the day once agian talking with locals in the Kisumu area learning about how they farm, how the weather has effected thierharvests over the past few seasons and how much theyare spending on vegtables because of it. Today we also met with some seedling sellers and were able to talk to them about what thier most popular plants are. Today is also special since while talking with the vendor we also bought seedlings to be transplanted into the two towers. Once we finish cleaning the roots and preping the seedlings so that they dont die from Hydroponic shock, we will be heading to Bright Light to put them in the tower at the Opati's home.
Tower Prototypes
May 15th, 2018
Ellis, Jessica, and Zaid posing with the Competed Tower Prototypes
Inakua has arrived in Kenya and have built our very first protoypes here in Kenya! We used localy sourced material along with a pump and solar pannel to create these two towers. Each Tower can hold 50 leaffy green plants such as skuma wiki and spinach. We are looking forward to getting these towers up and running and in the hands of some families here in Kisumu. A special thanks to the Sooper Guest Hotel for letting us build in thier courtyard andagreeing to et us keep a tower on thier roof.
Now that the towers are built we will be filling them with plants and we will continue going out and talking to locals in order to learn about thier current farming practices. We will also be looking into the best vegtables to grow in our towers as well as the possibility of selling them in Ag Stores. We will be monitering the towers all month to see how much the produce and how much watter they consume.
The Beginings of a Tower
May 12th, 2018
Zaid Posing with the Local Plummers who cut the Holes in our PVC Pipes.
We are begining to learn our way around Kisumu and have begun production on our very first Kenyan sourced prototypes. These PVC pipes, pictured along with the plummers who cut all 100 holes for us, will house all the plants in our systems allowing thier roots to stay moist as watter tricles over them. All we need now to complete our prototypes is a watter basin to collect the water that will be recycled through the system as well as a pump for the water, then w just have to put all the pieces of our tower together.
Go Soil-Free Today!
Interested in getting your own Hydroponic Tower with Inakua? Reach out and ask us how you can get started.
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