Margaret Ahona is a dairy farmer from Emanda, Vihiga County.
She has eight dairy cows producing over 100 litres of milk every day making her one of the leading farmers in the western county.
Margaret’s success has seen her farm being used as a model farm to teach other farmers to be successful in dairy farming.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Margaret runs a small dairy farm in Vihiga.
From her eight dairy cows, she gets 100 litres per day on a normal season and as high as 150 litres during high peak seasons.
Margaret sells a litre at Ksh 50 which means she makes up to Ksh 5,000 per day from selling milk.
She sells some of her milk to her neighbours but she supplies most of it to the Vihiga Dairy Cooperative Society.
Margaret’s success in the trade has seen the cooperative partner with her, using her farm to teach other farmers good farming practices.
At the moment, Margaret who has been practicing dairy farming for the last six years is hoping to increase her dairy cows to 100 in the next five years.
“If we continue with breading at the farm with each cow getting higher and superior pedigree semen through Artificial Insemination, we can get more animals and also increase milk production,” she said.
Margaret has also had her fair share of challenges which include the cost of animal feeds, calling on the government to intervene.
“A bag of 90kg bag of dairy meal goes for about Ksh 3,600. Our biggest challenge as farmers is the price of feeds, and we hope as the government subsidises other farm inputs, it would also consider dairy feeds,” she stated.
Margaret runs the farm with her daughter, Edna Kaveza, a Kenyatta University graduate who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.
Following the completion of her studies, Kaveza tarmacked in Nairobi for years looking for a job but her efforts were all in vain.
The situation was bad to the point that she had to be dependent on her friends and relatives for survival and managing her expenses.
“I went from office to office dropping my CV hoping to get a call. But nothing came through. I only received regrets. I tried consultancy but it was fruitless because I did not have any wealth of experience that attracts deals,” Kaveza told the Standard.
After unsuccessfully trying to secure a job, Kaveza resorted to relocating back to her rural home in Emanda, Vihiga County to engage in dairy farming.
After making the investment, the two started attending entrepreneurial and developmental dairy value chain training sessions.
“My plan is this, if we continue with breeding at the farm with each cow getting superior pedigree semen through Artificial Insemination, we can get more animals and also increase our milk production,” Edna said.
