Maize and potatoes farming

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Yiamato from Narok in Kenya.I grew up in the heart of Maasailand in Kenya. As a young growing girl nothing was more thrilling than looking after my father's goats and sheep and playing with girls my age.Life was simple then, all we had for communication was a radio that was only listened to by grownups. I went on to school amid a lot of hardships, but nevertheless did exceptionally well and i was able to proceed on to the University where i graduated with a second class, upper division in Computer Science in Software development. Through Zidisha, personal hard work and the grace of God, i have moved from a monthly salary dependent individual to a farmer and a business person. Before Zidisha, it was difficult to access funding but thanks that now i am where i am, self dependent and looking forward to achieving my dreams. My business is steadily growing and so is my farming venture. In the most recent rains, i was able to farm upto 25 acres of maize and beans, the staple foods in these parts of the world, i have been able to achieve alot of my dreams through the proceeds of my harvest.
The maasai culture is very unique, we have managed to stick to our traditional ways of life, and even though the rest of the world has moved on, we have managed to keep our old traditional ways of dress and many practices that are only unique to the Maasai.The Maasai have however embraced new ways of farming and rearing cattle, which is good because we would other wise be very poor.
My children though young, have already beginning forming ideas of what they would like to be. My firstborn (8), would like to be an engineer, the second who recently turned 6, would like to be a pilot, while the youngest wants to be a doctor even though she still cant stand the sight of a hospital or a doctor. During my free time, i like to spend time with my children, teaching them and playing my childhood games with them.

My Business

The last rains that we had from April through to June were heavy, and because of this we had a bumper harvest of maize and beans. To be able to make actual profits in farming, i need to do value addition to the maize by making maize flour from it and selling to my customers. The staple food in Kenya is Ugali- A cake like meal that's made from maize flour. Research has showed that 80% of Kenyans consume this meal every dinner time. With this kind of information, i am assured that i will not go wrong in investing in a maize mill. For this i need to purchase a Maize Posho Mill which costs Kshs.200,000. Usually, when one has a Posho mill, you still have to buy the maize so as its a one stop shop for the customers. In my case, i already have 200 bags of maize in storage just awaiting the beginning of my business.In my estimation, i am looking at profits of about 20,000 every month.My overhead costs will be fuel, as the Posho mill runs on Diesel, and i will also require to maintain one assistant in the shop.
The proceeds of this venture will be used to expand my business some more and build a strong base for it as i wish to soon be able to buy a car of my own.

Loan Proposal

I would like to farm maize and potatoes in a 2 acre farm. I have already tilled the land and put a harrow on it. I need money to buy seeds.1 acre of potatoes needs 15 bags of potato seeds,Each bag is costing Kshs.3000.1 bag of maize seeds costs Kshs.500.Each acre requires 20 bags.The cost of planting the two acres (maintenance) is 30,000, while fertilizers and other insecticides is 20,000.The total cost comes to 105,000.
With this farm, i am able to sustain my family and also a few extra things for myself.A lot of people get work through this farm and are able to take care of their families. E.g the casual laborers

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