A twenty-six-year-old Murang’a County Mathematics and Chemistry instructor has dabbled in a novel economic venture: establishing o potable farms. Today, Elizabeth Koigi, a young and diligent lady, supplements her income by selling not just the produce from her farm, but also the concept.
She stands up and introduces herself.
“My name is Elizabeth Wambui Koigi, and I grew up in Limuru, Kenya. My junior year of high school was spent in the same neighbourhood. Later, I enrolled in Karatina University to get a bachelor’s degree in education (Science). I have a tremendous desire to feed others while simultaneously pursuing a job in the process.”
“I considered teaching to be a waste of time. My KES 35,000 compensation was insufficient,” she adds, “and I was unable to do anything significant.”
“I decided to apply my urban farming expertise. I currently have a total of two acres that I own and lease. If I was still teaching, I may be stuck in some employment group with a KES 3,000 increase,” she speculated.
Another teacher-farmer professional is Benson Wirigi, a passionate pig farmer.
“The high school math teacher takes us on a tour of his pig farm as we watch his five sows cavort with their 30 piglets in the pigsty. “I started with five piglets that I bought someplace in Meru.
They were weavers who had been weaned for two months. I kept four of them for around six months before selling them to a local slaughterhouse. The other two I kept as breeding stock, and I bought a boar to feed them.”
When Wirigi left his job three years ago, he decided to explore pig farming as a method to supplement his income, and he hasn’t looked back.
He is now the proud owner of Gritty Pigs, a pig-raising and-selling operation. His farm is located on his Meru property and provides the ideal environment for his pigs.
Both potato and pig farming are successful businesses. A farmer, like any other company owner, must perform research to determine whether the industry will be lucrative. Frustrations may emerge as a result of a lack of planning and study.
