He earns Sh100,000 every month from garlic. He delivers just 400 kilograms to markets in Nanyuki and Isiolo. That is Sh250 a kilogram. And he is only 26 years old.

His name is Alfred Koome. When he touched down in Kenya from India in September 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture, he had it all mapped out. A job at a flower farm. A salary. A plan.

Then COVID-19 hit. Flower exports dropped by over 90 percent. Farms were laying off workers. His plan collapsed before it began.

Most people would have panicked. Koome did something different.

“As a man, you only have so much time to feel sorry for yourself. I had access to a sizable plot of land, agricultural expertise, and had done extensive research on high-value crops,” he says.

He planted garlic. And garlic changed everything.

Here is the math that changed his life.

A well-managed acre can yield between 4,000 and 6,000 kilograms. At farm-gate prices of Sh150 to Sh300 per kilogram, garlic farming can net Sh400,000 to Sh600,000 per acre per season. At the higher end, that is up to Sh1.25 million per acre.

Koome started with French beans and used the returns to buy garlic seedlings. Today, he earns Sh100,000 a month from garlic alone.

But his journey was not just about planting. He constructed a water pan for irrigation. “Since its construction in late 2022, I can attest to a 15-20 percent increase in both my garlic and potato yield,” he said.

Here is what Alfred Koome taught me, Goal Getter.

He had a degree and no job. He could have waited for the flower farms to reopen. He could have given up on agriculture entirely.

But he did not.

He looked at the land. He looked at his expertise. He looked at the market. He planted garlic. He irrigated. He harvested. He sold. He scaled.

You might be in your post-graduation season right now. No job. Limited capital. A plan that fell apart.

Do not give up yet.

Start small. One-quarter of an acre. Learn the crop. Master the market. Store your harvest. Sell when prices peak. Scale slowly.

Alfred Koome started with French beans. Today, he earns Sh100,000 a month from garlic alone.

The land does not care about your degree. It cares about your hands.