THE AGROPRENEUR:with an Average monthly income of kSh300,000, Mary Gitau-Makori, 29, is laughing all the way to the bank

Fifty-two pigs, 50 rabbits, 200 road runners and two greenhouses.

That’s what Mary, who holds a first degree in Human Resources from the Methodist University, boasts on her Doben Resources Farm in dry Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Her venture is a remarkable, mixed-farming enterprise on a 150-by-100-metre plot. She bought it in 2009 and, in the last one year, it has been earning her and her new husband more than double what they earned as salaried employees.

Last year she sold 40 pigs at a go and earned a Sh200,000 profit.

She has four varieties of tomatoes, which earn her more than Sh90,000 in three months, in addition to the Sh130,000 she gets from capsicum and strawberries.

Her rabbits weigh between six and nine kilos; a mature one goes for Sh2,500. She now processes a blend of tomato and strawberry juice, which earns her a profit of at least Sh21,000 per month.

Her proximity to the city has made it hard to satisfy the demand. “New customers keep coming. I never have enough,” she says.