My name is Mary Sarange Elijah, I was born in Bomet county and married in Kisii county to Joseph Ondieki. I am a primary school teacher by profession but I engage myself in small scale faming to supplement my income.

I was blessed with 4kids with the youngest being in the university.

I and my husband love adventures together with our last born we do enjoy outs especially on weekends.

Hi Zidisha Team

I would like to share about my small tea farming business.

I own 2 acres of tea farm in my rural home in Bomet County. I am a primary school teacher by profession, but the salary is small and not enough to meet all my family needs. Because of that, I started tea farming about 10 years ago to support my income.

I harvest and sell green tea leaves every month. The farm gives me a gross income of about 22,000 Kenyan shillings per month. I employ 3 workers to help me with plucking tea, and I pay each of them 200 shillings per day.

I am requesting a loan of 8000 shillings to enable me buy new tea harvesting bags.

My main expenses are labor and fertilizer to keep the tea healthy and productive.

The profit I get from this business helps me take care of my family. I use it to buy daily needs like food and clothing, and also to pay rent and school expenses for my children.

Tea farming has really helped me improve my life and support my family. I am working hard to grow it more and increase my income in the future.

Thank you for your support. 🙏

I am immediately going to buy new bags for harvesting tea. New bags helps to cut loss and also to keep the tea fresh until it reaches the buying centre. Also, it will make work easy by not sharing one bag for 2 workers thus making picking tea fast.