I am Sam Sangalo,22 years old a form four graduate,having finished form four two years ago.My mom is a single parent.I have two more younger siblings whom I support.A bother and a sister.My brother is in form one at a local secondary school while my sister is at a local primary school.I started the piggery business to help me feed and take care of my family and also hopefully by the end of next year,I should go pursue a diploma in agriculture at Jomo Kenyatta University of agriculture and technology.The weight of the family is on me and I am helping them as much as I can.My mom has struggled all her life to help me and my siblings have a bright future, but of recent her health is deteriorating so I decided to venture into the business to be able to supplement my family income. For my passion in Agriculture and especially keeping and taking care of animals I plan to study agriculture in college. My passion drove me to start up a pig project last year around May. I started with one pig,a sow,and it gave birth to eight piglets. I sold them off and was able to buy another female pig which is got served one month ago. In July I bought four more pigs, but it proved to be a very big challenge since I couldn't afford to feed them adequately.

But never the less I struggled to feed them and tried my level best and later sold off two pigs and remained with four.The pigs helped me clear the balance of tuition for my siblings . The cost of feeds has steadily risen with time thus becoming expensive for me to afford to enhance the quality of my animals. Last month I sold off two pigs, the earnings from the sale,were used to buy feeds but with the family basic needs( paying mums bill and also feeding of family) it could not be adequate. I trust that with the loan from Zidisha,I will be able to buy feeds for the remaining pigs and also expand. I wish I had heard about this earlier thank you Zidisha team

I have a piggery in Kibos area few kilometers in the outskirts of the city of Kisumu. Kibos is a big community centre with a well structured farming enterprises whose market is Kisumu city and neighboring centers. There is a huge and a ready market for the pig products at very competitive prices because of the few people doing the business and the high demand for pig products. I run a small kiosk where I sells basic commodities and charcoal. My mother and my siblings are very supportive and understanding, and they have encouraged me so much in my piggery project.The kiosk makes adequate profits which will be enough to pay the the installments for the zidisha loan, as we work together to the success of the piggery project, since I see it as a big time and highly profitable project. this will be for an interim period of four months as we wait for the served sow to give birth and the others especially the male to be of better quality for the market. The four months are adequate to generate enough money that can be re-invested in the farm for expansion purposes. This will ensure self sustainability for the piggery project I look forward to expanding this farm to a level whereby it will be supplying other farmers with piglets at the same time I will be selling off the mature pigs for meat.

My dream is to have the biggest farm in Kisumu county, that can be used as an education center to the youth from the rest of Kenya who are trying to venture into a similar business as a way of dealing with unemployment.

I am working with two collegues from my former school who are my very close friends and are doing it for free as a way of finding something to do in free time.

There is demand for the piglets and the mature pigs,for pork products around the city of Kisumu and beyond,hence the high profitability of the business.

The major risk is feeding and treatment of these animals but it is manageable if there is a steady income.

My typical monthly cost run at Kenya shillings five thousand five hundred for the feeds,and Kenya shillings three thousand for treatment,deworming and veterinary extensions

The revenue stream is as follows,one piglet sells for two thousand Kenyan shillings.The one which is almost maturing sells for three thousand five hundred shillings,and a fully grown goes for between five and seven thousand shillings basing on the quality.My customers prefer my business to the competition because of the quality of the animals and my ability to deliver on time.

I will use the loan for introduction of chicken on my farm. The introduction of chicken is important on the farm, because the chicken droppings can be used as feeds for the pigs and this helps to reduce on feed cost while giving quality feeds. Chicken is also on high demand as well and as the festive season is soon to be over, people will begin selling chicken more cheaply inorder to recover the used money, and me i will use that opportunity to buy the chicken and wait for the festive season of lent to the easter season around march to april and sell the chicken which will also bring in money for the daily running of the farm. The loan will be used to buy chicken targeting about 8 hens and a cock, the money will also be used to buy feeds for both the chicken and the pigs as well. It will also pay for ventinary services for the pigs and vaccination for my chicken. one thing am glad about is the housing of the chicken is available and since it will be on free range system of feeding. the money will also be used to buy saw dust for the floor of the chicken room