Entrepreneur

About Me

I am Benson Kamau born 45 years ago, a Kenyan citizen. I am married and have four school going children aged between 12 and 23 years two girls and two boys and sole bread winner for the family.Doing Farming is a calling for me other than being a classroom teacher. I have done a lot of research on people’s way of life (health, nutrition, attitudes on diet) the reason behind my business.I am a resident of Rongai in Nakuru county-Kenya. I have very high expectations of getting high quality meat and on the sidelines I hope to collect rabbit skins for making indoor shoes, purses and other survenirs.

My Business

A combination of passion for livestock keeping and knowledge of lifestyle diseases of humans prompted me to start rabbit keeping basically as a source of white and cholesterol free meat for my family (they take 2kgs every weekend). My immediate neighbours have whole heartedly joined rabbit eating band wagon. Different people in different days troupe to my homestead demanding to buy one or two live rabbits to take to their homes, a five month old rabbit fetching as high as 200/- live weight translating to about Kshs. 500 per rabbit. I faithfully give guidance on slaughtering and meat curing procedure to them. My rabbitry is comprised of 5 complete hutches.
N/B: a hutch is a small enclosure where rabbits are raised. Many hutches are kept in a place called a rabbitry. Each hutch has a mature doe (female rabbit and its litter). A buck (mature male rabbit) occupies its own hutch. All my rabbits are Newzealand white (Kenya white) breed with an average weight of 3.5kgs.
Some of the outstanding qualities of rabbit meat include;
-No traces of dangerous cholesterol in rabbit meat.
-No traces of drugs in muscle tissues which is a common feature in cattle, sheep, goats and chicken after ailing and getting treatment traces of drugs left behind in muscle tissues. Rabbits rarely suffer from diseases unlike other livestock therefore guaranteed of high quality white meat.
-Rabbits have a short gestation period (28-30 days between conception and delivery) Rabbits multiplies rapidly (a prolific doe can produce on average 8 kindlings) therefore one is able increase his/her stock within a short time.
-High feed (weeds) to meat conversion ratio.
-Feed is comprised of readily available weeds (black jack, macdonald eye, sowthistle, wondering jew) all locally available.
-Rabbit dung to enrich the arable farm land (therefore encouraging organic farming).
-The high quality leather in skin used for making purses, fur used in making garments.
People in my community are already been sensitized on the need to have a healthy lifestyle and more and more are willing to eat rabbit meat. I have therefore got a plan at hand; to start rabbit shop here at Rongai town.
I am anticipating an all time demand for rabbit meat in the Kenyan cities( Nakuru, Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret) due to the rising numbers of residents wishing to change their meat eating habits.

Loan Proposal

I would use the loan to construct ten new hutches at a cost of Kshs.10,000.I would also hire a skilful attendant whose duty will be to care for the rabbits and keep records at a cost of Kshs.8,000 per month.Meat shop attendant would be paid Kshs.10,000 per month.The ten hutches will accommodate ten mature does(female rabbits).I would also hire an acre piece of land where i will grow rabbit fodder (Lucerne,boma rhodes grass and palatable weeds).The plot on hiring will cost Khs 3,000 per annum.Labour input on the plot will cost Kshs.4,000 per year and inputs(seeds and fertilizer) will cost Kshs 5,000 per year.

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