Hullo Zidisha Community. Am so humbled to be part of this great family. My names are Rita Andeyo Enane. I was born and bred in western Kenya but left in my late teens to work in Nairobi. Our 2 sons and I always came home over x

mass holidays. It always pained me to see how poor folks at home were yet they had big farms. I desired so much to try and help change their lives. When the boys finished primary(elementary) school, I resigned my job and migrated home to engage in farming as a sustainable business. I leased out farms and planted sugarcane, vegetables and cereals and sold to middlemen for a profit. I lived in the village yet my life was admirable. I also rared indigenous chicken and sold to hotels in nearby towns. They actually came to my village to buy the chicken and vegetables in their hotel cars and this surprised folks at home. Slowly I encouraged them to keep chicken and plant vegetables for cash and not only subsistence. My dream has always been to create employment and empower the rural woman. I have 1 permanent employee and 4 casual. The journey has been tough, not to mention fighting tradition and illetracy, but the struggle continues. Financing from banks has been depressing and I believe Zidisha community will help me continue to put smiles on my village folk faces and myself.

I mainly deal in farming of sugarcane' beans and vegetables. I also keep indigenous chicken for both meat and eggs. Chicken is a delicacy in western Kenya and is the main meal cooked for an important guest. Eggs are a cheap source of food. I dealin the improvedkienyeji chicken because it matures faster and its meat is sweet and tender. People in Kakamega love my chicken. At the moment I have 212 chicken but am selling off all the mature ones this December because the prices will be very good. I have a stock of 1 day old chicks coming in. I buy them from kukuchic ltd eldoret. I don't have an incubator so I have to keep buying new chicks. The improved kienyeji chicken rarely brood but they lay more eggs than the indegenous. chicken give me a faster source of income because sugarcane takes a year to mature and beans and vegetables are seasonal. On a good day I can make 150 dollars. The main challenge is supply of chicks. Sometimes we have to wait for over months because of many orders from other customers. This I plan to counter by purchasing an incubator so I can be hatching my own eggs and also sell chicks tointerested customers. I plan to increase my chicken to a capacity of 1000. Vegetable planting is very profitable but seasonal due to availability of adequate rainfall. My dream is to sink a borehole that can help in irrigation during the dry season.

I would love to put up a better water system for my birds which will reduce infections between the birds. It will also be easier to manage because it operates with minimal supervision thus I can get more hours for other tasks. I need a 50 litre water tank @$45, 30 water nipples @$1 a nipple=$30, water pipes $37, conta $10 and labor $15