James is a poultry farmer in Nakuru and he shares a testimony on how he made a total of Ksh15 million from his farming. Here is Jame’s inspiring story.
“I am James from Nakuru and my day to day work involves poultry rearing.My motivation into starting this venture was drawn due to lack of employment and frustration emanating from being broke.I was to stay in Nairobi forever, I had told myself after completing my degree in Financial Engineering from JKUAT, but as fate would dictate I am now in Nakuru.
In 2010, my journey started with dropping CVs in companies within Nairobi, that was after my graduation. We were a group of 5 men who had graduated from various universities. We would wake up every morning, board a matatu to Nyayo then walk all the way to town to save transport.We would then drop CVs right from companies located in Upper Hill, through to Westlands,then return home as we waited for calls. We routinely applied for jobs,in fact almost every secretary in Nairobi was familiar with us, since we frequented some offices until we were told, “enough!!!”.
After three years of tarmacking, I realized there was nothing forthcoming. All my friends had gotten jobs, I remained frustrated. In 2013,I gave up on job hunting and returned to live with my mother in Nakuru,I said, “maybe I wasn’t born lucky, let me go and try farming”.
Three months after I returned home, my mother realized I was not any useful to myself and the family, I was consuming food without contributing.Actually,my schedule was,wake up,take breakfast,visit friends,return in the evening ,take supper and sleep.One morning,she asked me,” James, don’t you think you are big enough to fend for yourself,how long will I be struggling to feed adults”. The statement opened my eyes, I realized my staying without any meaning contribution was hurting my parent.The same day,a thought sneaked in,telling me to start rearing chicken. This was as a result of what I had seen one of my friends, who is a neighbor, do.I asked my mother to boost me financially and she agreed.
With a capital of Ksh30, 000,I bought 100 chic broilers, which I started rearing. To my surprise, after 5 weeks they were mature and successfully sold them.The proceeds I received enabled me buy another batch of broilers, this time 200 of them…I sold them after 5 weeks and this time the money was enough to buy even more chicken.
To cut the story short, I realized my passion was in agriculture and not stock market as my earlier thought had deceived me.I am three years into this business and loving it so much.surprisingly,I have managed to make Ksh15 million in total and aiming at making even more. I have come to realize: when one opportunity closes, an even more exciting opportunity comes up.I thank God for opening my eyes.
This poultry business is very encouraging!
Quite encouraging