FARMING IN KENYA: make upto ksh 400,000 per season from chilli farming
activities last January, it has been promoting African Bird’s Eye (ABE) chilli as an ideal crop to provide an additional income source for small farmers.
Showing posts with label agripreneur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agripreneur. Show all posts
activities last January, it has been promoting African Bird’s Eye (ABE) chilli as an ideal crop to provide an additional income source for small farmers.
an alternative money minting untapped farming venure
Meet David 26, who does dairy goat
farming while still a student at Chuka
University. David started with one goat
which was an indigenous species and
then he decided to improve his breeds
to Kenyan Alpine breed so that he can
earn more from goat farming especially
in milk production.
Currently he has 15 goats and on
average and he is able to produce
more than 10 litres which he sells at
ksh 100 per day. He sells his goat
between ksh 15,000 and adult at
20,000.
Due to passion in agriculture and
especially animal health he enrolled at
Chuka University and he pays his fees
from goats milk and sales of his goats.
original arricle appeared on mkulimayoung.com
the 24yr old student raking big money from his half acre passion farm
In about twelve months, Morris Maina
Thuo will officially become an
accountant by profession.
Hopefully, he could get a job as an
accountant in a blue chip company.
But whether it happens or not, Maina
is not very worried---He has found a
money maker in passion fruits.
The fourth year Bachelor of Commerce
student at the University of Nairobi is
already raking in Sh 20,000 a week
from half an acre passion crop of 700
plants.
At the small farm given by his uncle
at Githakwa in Githunguri, Kiambu
County, Maina’s crop yields more than
250 kilos of passion fruits whose
market value ranges between Sh 80-
100 per kilo.
“I was growing the vegetables like
cabbages, kales and lettuce but there
was a lot of uncertainty. I decided to
change,” says Maina at his farm.
The 24 year old student juggles
between his accounting lessons and
the farm and so far, he has no worries
about marketing. “I cannot sustain the
demand so far. I have actually teamed
up with some other young men in the
area to grow the crop in their farms so
that we can sell together,” he explains.
He has added value to his farming and
now sells seedlings some of which is
grafted to produce better yielding
varieties. “We graft seedlings and we
have purple passion and Sweet yellow
varieties. They are fast moving,” says
Maina.
Quite techno-savvy, Main has taken up
Whatsup and Mkulima Young website
as his key digital marketing platforms.
“The Mkulima Young site is like a
market place. You meet buyers and
sellers at the same time. It has really
boosted my marketing,” he says.
Maina emphasizes the need for
applying modern marketing tools for
young farmers. “I am digital and I
want to be serious digital farmer.
Farming is not just about dirt. You can
be a smart farmer,” he encourages
youths who fear agriculture.
From his testimony, Maina is an apt
example of how a side farming job can
boost one’s income….. Another digital
farmer!
from a teacher to a multi million farming enterprise
"From a meare salary of Sh 5,000 a month, six
years ago, young Kimani’s assets are worth a
few millions, and still counting"
A teaching job interview that saw Francis
Kimani compete for one post with another 60
graduates was the only thing he needed to
know he was not meant to live off teaching, his
area of training.
He had graduated with a Bachelor of Education
degree (Kiswahili and History) from Kenyatta
University in 2008 and gotten a Board of
Governors (BOG) teaching job at Ngoliba Sec
School. He earned Sh 5,000 a month and his
take home was between Sh 2,500 and Sh 3,500
after transport deduction!
But six years later, Kimani is worth more than
Sh 50Million with a monthly income of about Sh
40,000. His wife, a full time manager at the
farm, is also paid a similar amount every
month.
"The interview in my own school really
disappointed me. I was already teaching there
but the person who got the job had graduated
10 years before me. I decided the Teachers
Service Commission(TSC) job was the wrong
dream to chase," says Kimani.
His farm at Munyu, 20 kilometres from Thika
town is an apt example of a meat empire built
in under six years.
In the farm, there are 202 goats, 93 cows, 56
kienyenji chicken and 17 boran cattle.
"I chose to farm meat animals because the
demand for meat is high. It can only grow
higher with growing population and shrinking
herds in many farms," he says.
At his backyard, Kimani has three vehicles,
including a Mercedes Benz and several rental
houses in the outskirts of Thika Town, all
estimated to be worth millions of shillings.
"I started by leasing ten acres of land. Since
then, I have bought several lands. I bought this
farm," he explains.
The breeds at Kimani’s farm are cross breeds as
they give better yields. His goats weigh between
35 and 65 kilos while his fat boran cattle from
Garissa weigh about 250 kilograms. "The cattle
sell at Sh 60,000. The goats fetch about Sh
10,000. I normally sell my animals in intervals
of three months," he explains.
He adds, "As a youth, I thought my education
should help me know how I can live a better
life not just to get a formal job. The obsession
with formal jobs is a misconception that is
eating our youth," advises.
Kimani believes there will be an agribusiness
explosion in the coming years and encourages
the youth to see farming as the next big thing.
"Population in towns is increasing and demand
is rising. There is no way agricultural produce
will miss market in the near future," he
confidently says.
tomato & capcicum farmer making ksh 50,000 per week from her quater acre farm
Constance Akiso has for the last three weeks
been a creature of habit. Every morning she
harvests vegetables for sale in the
afternoon. This is her first harvest since she
quit her job in January.
When Seeds of Gold caught up with her
early in the week, she had just delivered
her latest order of capsicum and tomatoes
at an upmarket mall in Nairobi.
Now in her 30s, Akiso resigned as a
marketing officer with an insurance firm to
concentrate on farming.
“I actually left employment on January 2 to
do farming,” she says. She previously worked
in sales and marketing at different
institutions, but none of these gave her the
satisfaction she desired.
Some of her friends and former colleagues,
she says, are baffled by her decision to quit
employment, but she is not worried. In any
case, farming is what she had always
wanted to do.
“My friends are actually surprised. They ask
why I am wasting my papers (undergraduate
and graduate qualifications). But I tell
them the knowledge and skills I gained in
school are what I’m applying in farming,”
she says.
While still in employment, Ms Akiso spent
part of her free time researching on farming.
“It took me a while looking through
information, reading stories of other farmers
and companies that are into this kind of
business,” she recalls. After a year of
research, she finally zeroed in on vegetable
farming.
“I wanted to do anything vegetables so I
thought I could start with tomatoes and
greens; then I can always rotate with
something else like chillies,” she says.
Capsicum and tomatoes seem to have
favoured her, going by the rich harvest she
has had this month.
Akiso first leased land in November last year
and put up two greenhouses.
“It is funny. The person who installed the
greenhouses for me happens to be someone
I had read about in the articles on farming.
I called them up and bought it from them,”
she tells Seeds of Gold.
Slow, but steady
Her total investment on the farm is
Sh600,000. Her capital was from savings and
a bank loan. The land in Rongai is a quarter
of an acre, and she plans to buy it.
The intensity of the work needed during
harvesting and marketing partly contributed
to her decision to resign. She says she
needed to prepare the market before the
crop was ready for harvesting.
“I started looking for business even before
the crops matured. she says.
Akiso makes Sh50,000 weekly from her small
farm, which she runs as a business entity
registered as Conbel Fresh Produce. Her
hope is to grow it bigger.
Every week she harvests 500kg of tomatoes
and 200kg capsicum.
“In everything one does, they should put
trust in God because this is what I do.”
But success has not come easy. Asiko has
had to overcome a number of
challenges. The first hurdle is water.
Without a borehole, she depends on the
intermittent Nairobi Water supplies to keep
her plants green.
Akiso also hires a pick-up to transport her
produce to the market.
“I don’t have a vehicle to transport the
produce, so I hire. This means I have to get
my calculations right so that I don’t incur
losses,” she says.
Akiso is happy that her dive into farming is
so far rewarding. To those eyeing the same,
she says: “To be able to do farming
successfully, one needs to do it full-time
because it demands undivided attention.”
tomato & capcicum farmer making ksh 50,000 per week from her quater acre farm
Constance Akiso has for the last three weeks
been a creature of habit. Every morning she
harvests vegetables for sale in the
afternoon. This is her first harvest since she
quit her job in January.
When Seeds of Gold caught up with her
early in the week, she had just delivered
her latest order of capsicum and tomatoes
at an upmarket mall in Nairobi.
Now in her 30s, Akiso resigned as a
marketing officer with an insurance firm to
concentrate on farming.
“I actually left employment on January 2 to
do farming,” she says. She previously worked
in sales and marketing at different
institutions, but none of these gave her the
satisfaction she desired.
Some of her friends and former colleagues,
she says, are baffled by her decision to quit
employment, but she is not worried. In any
case, farming is what she had always
wanted to do.
“My friends are actually surprised. They ask
why I am wasting my papers (undergraduate
and graduate qualifications). But I tell
them the knowledge and skills I gained in
school are what I’m applying in farming,”
she says.
While still in employment, Ms Akiso spent
part of her free time researching on farming.
“It took me a while looking through
information, reading stories of other farmers
and companies that are into this kind of
business,” she recalls. After a year of
research, she finally zeroed in on vegetable
farming.
“I wanted to do anything vegetables so I
thought I could start with tomatoes and
greens; then I can always rotate with
something else like chillies,” she says.
Capsicum and tomatoes seem to have
favoured her, going by the rich harvest she
has had this month.
Akiso first leased land in November last year
and put up two greenhouses.
“It is funny. The person who installed the
greenhouses for me happens to be someone
I had read about in the articles on farming.
I called them up and bought it from them,”
she tells Seeds of Gold.
Slow, but steady
Her total investment on the farm is
Sh600,000. Her capital was from savings and
a bank loan. The land in Rongai is a quarter
of an acre, and she plans to buy it.
The intensity of the work needed during
harvesting and marketing partly contributed
to her decision to resign. She says she
needed to prepare the market before the
crop was ready for harvesting.
“I started looking for business even before
the crops matured. she says.
Akiso makes Sh50,000 weekly from her small
farm, which she runs as a business entity
registered as Conbel Fresh Produce. Her
hope is to grow it bigger.
Every week she harvests 500kg of tomatoes
and 200kg capsicum.
“In everything one does, they should put
trust in God because this is what I do.”
But success has not come easy. Asiko has
had to overcome a number of
challenges. The first hurdle is water.
Without a borehole, she depends on the
intermittent Nairobi Water supplies to keep
her plants green.
Akiso also hires a pick-up to transport her
produce to the market.
“I don’t have a vehicle to transport the
produce, so I hire. This means I have to get
my calculations right so that I don’t incur
losses,” she says.
Akiso is happy that her dive into farming is
so far rewarding. To those eyeing the same,
she says: “To be able to do farming
successfully, one needs to do it full-time
because it demands undivided attention.”
