To buy more potato seeds for planting

James

Molo, Kenya

11% repaid

Entrepreneur

Name

James

Member since

March 2014

On-time repayments

10 installments  •  20%

About Me

My father (Michael Waweru)and mother (Christine Njeri) live in Molo. They have a shop which they operate. My father also does farming in small scale. I am the last born in our family. My eldest brother (Wilfred Muigai) works as a boda boda operator in Molo with a motorbike. The second brother (John Mwangi) has a music shop where he sells music products in Molo town. The third brother is employed in a milk diary company located nearby. I completed my secondary education in 2010 from Molo 220 secondary school. After competing school, I started helping my parents with the task of delivering shop products to customers and from wholesale shops. I have been doing the task until today. However, the shop is small scale business. I realized in 2011 that I was idle most of the time. Since my parents pay me, I decided to start investing in farming. I planted a quarter acre of potatoes and I got good profits in December 2011. I have been combining the farming business with the task that I am assigned at my parent’s shop. I have leased a half acre of land where I rotate potatoes, peas, maize and beans. I decided to invest in the farming because I have seen many people succeed here in Molo. My elder brothers have also supported their businesses using returns from farming. Due to good climate and soil, the products that I mentioned do well in Molo. In Kenya, products of molo have a reputation of good quality. Due to conducive conditions, the risk involved in arable farming is low. Also, we only deal with products that grow well in Molo. Infrustructure has been developed, unlike before. This has increased the ability to sell the fram products at good prices. This is the reason why I decided to invest in the farming. I have been getting profits. I use just about 30 percent of my profits to support my personal needs, I save 30% and use the rest to invest more in farming. I intend to expand the farming to large scale if I can access good capital. The loan given by Zidisha will be very supportive to me.

My Business

I am going to repay the loan from my the profits that I get from farming, from the salary that I am paid for working at my parent’s shop and using my savings. I have no other loans and therefore, I will be able to pay without problems. I have also joined a group of farmers who contribute some money every month and support one another. I am eager to advance and have intentions to work with zidisha to make my dreams true. As I mentioned, I rotate potatoes, peas, beans and maize. However, I always prefer potatoes and peas because they are well paying than beans and maize. During the last season, I has planted peas. This season, I have decided to plant potatoes. I work together with my father and close friends who supply me seeds at low cost in time of need. I also supply them with the available seeds. I have already planted half acre of potatoes since the rains have started. However, I can still lease more land and plant more potatoes or any of the other three products before the rains end. The capital that I have is limited and I can only use it to cultivate. For the half piece of land, I sell potatoes at about Kshs 77,000 although the revenue may go up or down. I incur expenses such as cultivation (Kshs 9,000), buying potato seeds (Kshs 7,000), Leasing land (Kshs 5,000), uprooting and putting potatoes in bags (Kshs 6,000). Other expenses may take Kshs (5,000). This means that I get a net profit of Kshs 45,000 after around three months after planting. This implies that if I get more land, the profits are going to expand. This is how many successful people have attained success here. Farming is good since we supply to all parts of Kenya, including areas where there is poverty. Zidisha provides great opportunity for me to expand my projects and get good profits. I welcome all to support me.

Loan Proposal

Thank you Zidisha team for the approvalof my account. I am grateful now that I have a chance to buy more potato seeds and lease another half acre of land. I will do it immidiately after I get the loan since the planting season has already set in. There are rains and I will be able to take advantage of the situation. I will use $55 to lease half acre of land and $50 to buy additional potatoe seeds which are availabe from my father and my friends. I will use the rest in paying for other expenses such as transport and planting expenses. If I access additional loan in future, I will lease more land and expand my project. The current loan will help me to double my expected profits for the season. I welcome your support.

Feedback

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Loan Info

Project Type

Classic Loan

Disbursed amount

$150.00

Date disbursed

Mar 23, 2014

Repayment status

Late

Projected term

2 months

Lenders

H

HappythroughHelp

Torrance, United States

M

Markus

Tirschenreuth, Germany

L

LukeTenney

Mayfield, Australia

E

Escalada

Bakersfield, CA, United States

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