I am Kevin Maina, a young and ambitious farmer. I have been through several academic ranks upto college level. In my childhood, my mother was a farmer and good she was, but only against the local standards.

I therefore inherited the attraction to farming but with a renewed desire to be the best there can be. After a few years of temporary employment, I quit after realising meagre savings...

Here I am trying to utilize the limited loan facilities available to help me prove to my fellow young friends that joining agriculture wasn't a mistake, but the right step towards youth empowerment.

Describe your business or income source in at least 300 characters

I am into the dairy farming, a promising venture in the county. My home is near several urban settings that boast of huge number of tenants. Obviously, these people need to feed and milk is that one item you are sure to find in every homestead in Kenya. It is this realisation that informed the county government's idea to subsidize the cost of dairy farming. I therefore took full advantage to Lower operational costs in veterinary care, fetch higher prices for the produce among other related benefits.

To maximize profit, my idea is to create sustainable and weather resistant food supply round the year and in turn keep more animals.

My target is to put up a modern housing structure for my young family and later diversify my business.

As earlier mentioned, I always wanted to diversify my business. What's more, I've been harvesting some decent amounts of manure from my herd. This is why I've ventured into macadamia farming. As shown in the photo, the seedlings are doing fine. My challenge has been maintaining the plant healthy despite the biting drought.

I've decided to adopt drip irrigation to supply the 30 seedlings with water at minimal costs and labour demands. I purchased each seedling at 3 dollars each so I can't just watch as my work is ruined.

I need about 80 dollars (30 of which I already have). 50 dollars shall be used to purchase the pipes, and the rest goes to labour.

This investment is worth every penny since in 3 years, I'll start harvesting the highly valued macadamia nuts. Meanwhile, I'll be using proceeds from my main business(dairy farm) to honour my debt obligations.

At the moment, a kilo of macadamia nuts fetches 1.5 dollars. If each trees brings forth 5 kilos in the first season, the figures are just promising. Who knows, I might even afford boarding school fees for my son. With Zidisha, every dream is livable!