Am Mary Githae, aged 27yrs, married and a mother of one son. Am a holder of a first degree in Economics from makerere university in Uganda. currently i work as a secretary in a security firm run by my husband. The firm is still in it's initial starting process and we look forward for growth and expansion in the future. Most of my years have spent in the rural village helping my family to cultivate our farm in the Western regions of Kenya.
This love or farming has enabled me build a greenhouse that i use to grow vegetables which eventually i supply our market center. The farming project has been the backbone of my family for some time and has really helped us to reach where we are now.
my greatest hobby is farming and after office work, i spent most of my time in the farm, currently i have a small section of kale,spinach, maize, pumpkins and yams. besides that i have started rabbit keeping and so far i have acquired two (male and female).
Am proud that even though am not doing it in large scale, my son always has fresh vegetables from the farm.
Farming is a good business due to the availability of ready market. Farming business has given me great returns in the last seasons when the market value of vegetables is high especially in dry seasons. Have managed to change the type of vegetables i plant (crop rotation) as advised by the local agriculture officer.
The initial start up capital i acquired a loan of USD 700 from the woman investment group i belong to. i used the capital to put up a greenhouse and purchase the seeds and fertilizers. my biggest challenge was to manage the tomatoes to make sure no disease attacks, however tomatoes are the best, i managed 26 crates at a cost of USD 17 per crate. with kale a sack goes for USD 6, a sack of spinach costs USD 7. I have been able to repay my loan and dug a borehole to assist in irrigation during dry seasons, acquired irrigation pump and horse pipe from a Zidisha loan which i have fully repaid and even supported my husband to raise capital to start up the security firm and above all saved me a visit to the market for most of the vegetables for my family offering them a balanced diet.
My crops require to be sprayed with insecticides to eradicate crop eating insects and other chemicals that promote crop yields.
I wish to purchase a knapsack sprayer pump that I will use for sparing the chemicals on my farm crops.
Knapsack Sprayer (HX-102) model @Usd 200
The pump will help me a lot since it is a safe and healthy way of administering chemicals, easy to measure and mix chemicals. This will boost my farm yields and produce quality vegetables hence increasing my profit levels from the sales of my farm produce. At large, this will improve the living standards of my family and save for the future of my son.