Sharon Mutiga is a pig farmer from Tigania West, Meru County.
The entrepreneur went into agribusiness after quitting her job as a air hostess after working for over six years.
Mutiga explained that she quit her job despite opposition from her family because of lack of satisfaction.
But how did she find a footing in agribusiness? Here is her story as told by WoK.
The Journey
For over six years, Mutiga worked in the aviation industry and flew from city to city, stayed in five-star hotels and shopped in world’s most exclusive locations.
However, as years went by, she developed second thoughts about continuing pursuing the career over what she termed lack of satisfaction.
In an interview with Nation, Mutiga noted that after an intense contemplation about the same, she called it quits in 2016.
“I felt stuck in a rut with no career progression, there was also the fact that the airline was not doing well.
“When I quit, people asked me, ‘are you crazy? Why would you leave employment?’ But I knew it was time to quit since there was no job satisfaction, I had to take a risk and leave,” she said.
Following her resignation, Mutiga flew to South Africa where she undertook a course that would enable her work in a yacht.
After completing the course that took three months, she travelled to the US in search of a job but she was not lucky to get one.
She left for Bali, Indonesia where she was fortunate to land a managerial job at a luxury retreat centre, earning Ksh 250,000 per month.
However, six months into the job, Mutiga’s father got ill forcing her to quit her job and travel back to Kenya to help her mother take care of her father.
It was during this time when she started practicing agribusiness.
“I had a lot of interest in farming while growing up in Nandi where I was born. My father worked in tea estates but I never thought that I would farm one day for a living
“Unfortunately, young people think farming is dirty and would never consider it, but from experience, the dirtier the hands the cleaner and sweeter the money,” Mutiga said.
She runs Lomu Farm, a two-acre space where she rears fish and pigs as well as growing indigenous vegetables, pawpaw and bananas.
Mutiga inherited the land from her father who passed away in 2020.
Initially, she had tried tomato and poultry farming but she abandoned the venture when it failed to become profitable.
She turned to fish farming and constructed six raised ponds which she stocked with 2,000 catfish fingerlings.
Having invested Ksh 65,000 in the project, she harvested part of the stock and earned Ksh 50,000 profit six months later.
“Fish farming is my main project, I have about 1,000 fish in the ponds right now. Catfish needs a warm and humid atmosphere and a greenhouse is ideal. I also rear tilapia in an open pond where I keep 500 of them,” she explained.
Mutiga also sells piglets from time to time to budding farmers who are interested in keeping pigs.
Additionally, the agriprenuer also keeps Black Soldier Fly (BSF), an venture that came about as a waste management idea.
“I feed my fish with the larvae, a factor that has cut the cost of production by over 50 percent since it supplements commercial feeds,” Mutiga mentioned.
She earns at leat Ksh 50,000 monthly from her farm.
