Vegetable farming project

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a young married man having a wife and two children aged two and five. I grew up in rural Kenya in western province. My childhood was full of adventure and gives me nostalgia as I remember how we used to go to the forest with my friends to hunt for rabbits and later on go swimming in the nearby river.
I was privileged to have a high school diploma but that was the far I ever got because of lack of fees. I decided to venture into the business of selling second hand clothes in our local market and did it for two years just after I got married. It was qiute hectic and required me to be there all day long. After my wife gave birth to our second born, she required help around the homestead and with the nature of my job I could not manage helping her well. That is when I decided to grow vegetables in our small firm for commercial use.
My people still follow traditions and have a good number of taboos like how you relate with your mother in law or father in law amongst many others.
Both my young boys are into flying and they say one day they will become pilots. Occasionally plane fly overhead our homestead and they run after them cheering.
In my free time I do fishing which I enjoy very much and it gives me time to meditate in the quiet environment.

My Business

Basically I provide groceries which include kales (locally known as sukuma wiki) and tomatoes. These form part of the daily diet for most Kenyan families meaning the market is ready and plenty.
Initially I used to just plant without any agricultural inputs and did not even know there were different types of Kale and tomatoes, but after a free seminar to sensitise small scale farmers on better ways of farming to improve yield and ultimately income my eyes were opened and I realized I had to change my mode of farming.
I found out that the best seed for kale originated from kinale, north of the capital city Nairobi on the edge of the rift valley.
The seeds have not yet started being commercially produced but I made effort and got in touch with officers from Kenya Agricultural Research Institute who offered to avail some seedlings to me because of my quest. These seeds produce a more healthy breed of kale having a better taste and greener in color.
I have just started off and was advised by the officers to use manure and some pesticides at some point for better results. Due to the dry season prices of kale are about 16 to 17 dollars for a bag of 50kgs and I produce two such bags every two weeks. With the new breed I should be able to do about three bags which will be good.
Now I will have to incur the cost of fertiliser/ manure and pesticides. I also wany to build a hedge around my small farm to keep off chicken which tend to nib my vegetables.
I plan to maintain my tomato farm which is around 15 by fifteen feet and produces tomatoes worth 20 dollars monthly.
The money I get from the farm sustains my small family and I need to increase my income because my elder son has started going to school.
I will also re invest some money to ensure I do my farming in a professional way and get more profit.

Loan Proposal

Given the loan I will buy manure for my small farm at 20 dollars and pesticides at 15 dollars. I also plan to fence the small farming area to keep off chicken that roam the neighborhood from eating my produce at a cost of 50 dollars. To cut down the cost I will also use locally available materials like offcuts for fencing. Whatever I will remain with I will plogh back into the tomato side to improve it via manure and pesticides also.
This will greatly improve my family life because now I will be able to feed my family and pay for my sons' fees.
I expect a profit increase of about 40% in the first two months then an average of 50% increase in profit from the third month.

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