When Scholar Kerubo was employed as a primary teacher by the Teachers Service Commission in 1997, her salary was not sustainable. In order to survive, she needed to think of a side hustle. Thus, she decided to venture into farming.
Speaking to Farmbiz Africa, she explained her journey to establishing a successful farming venture. While her pay from her teaching job has gone up, she hopes to seek early retirement and fully focus on farming.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Focusing on Farming
She graduated from Eregi Teachers College in 1997 and got employed by TSC.
To supplement her income, she ventured into farming in 2000. From a young age, she had always been interested in farming and thought that was the right time to actualize her dreams.
Having managed to save Ksh40,000, she bought an incubator and 300 chicks that were one day old.
At the time, she had no electricity hence to sustain them she would boil hot water and place it in the incubator.
Every lunch hour, she would switch up the water and at night, place them in the bedroom and cover them with a blanket.
Growth
70 of the chicks died and the rest survived. She sold them after six to eight months and made enough money to purchase a crossbreed dairy cow, avocado seedlings, 20 tissue culture bananas and more indigenous chicken. She planted the crops in her half acre piece of land near Kisii town.
The dairy cows increased and she would make up to Ksh17,000 from milk.
Growing bigger
Feeling the need to move to a bigger space, she sold her land and everything and managed to buy three acres of land in Homa Bay.
The farmer started growing capsicum, watermelon and cucumber in large numbers. Apart from getting buyers from different places like Kisumu, Kericho Nandi and Kilgoris; she would also sell her produce in Kisii and Rongo.
Kerubo would harvest twice weekly and at times make Sh80,000 a week. This became a great source of motivation for her to keep going on.
She told Farmbiz that her horticulture and poultry farming is bringing her enough income.
“Horticulture is earning me between Ksh40,000 and Ksh50,000 while dairy and poultry bring about Kshh20,000-Ksh30,000. Additionally, I run a small bread bakery unit which gives in some good cash too so why wait for 12 months what I can earn in just three months,” Scholar Kerubo said.
For years, the primary teacher has woken up by 6:30, given instructions to workers until 7:30, then gone to school until evening hours. She then goes to work on the farm from 5 in the evening.
