Phase 2 tree planting

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Kennedy Ragot. Presently I live in Nairobi, place called Baba Dogo, neighboring the expansive Korogocho slums. Most of my life was spent in the villages where I attended Kipturi Primari School sitting for my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 1994. Life back then was simple and not easy. We went to school barefoot carrying our little books in polythene bags. Attending class was not mandatory, well, according to our parents (its not that even we loved schooling anyway), who on several days would send us young boys into the hills to care for the family goats. The December Christmas holiday were our best days. It was the day we partook of the glorious 'Fanta Tarino' or 'Treetop' beverages, not to forget the chapatis. Those days, chapati used to be chapati. Multilayer and spotted like the male leopard. Town people also thronged the villages with their children wearing brightly colored new clothes and speaking the 'strange' Kiswahili language. We would go days on end begging them to allow us 'measure' their plastic shoes which made funny noises on our little muddy feet. Rainy days were God-send play days to us. Who would have dared to cross the raging river which had the tendency to overflow the narrow, colonial era low bridge sitting right between our village and the school? Talking of the school, all lower primary pupils studied under trees. The upper primary classrooms were not much better. I remember when we graduated to the upper classes and the lunch bell rang, students would exit the classroom in all directions only relevant to the positioning of an individual's home. They were merely roofs supported by a beam and another there. That not-withstanding, we sat for our final examinations and was admitted to Onjiko Boys High School, where without much drama, I finally sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 1998, scoring a mean grade of b-(minus).
Having failed to find a sponsor for college education (my mother may God rest her soul in peace) was not capable of supporting my program, I thus moved to Nairobi and did menial jobs for sustenance. My aim was to save and get a professional training, university education and ultimately get constructive income. The wages however could only be sufficient for my meals. My rent came in arrears and several times I risked ejection but I persisted, cutting down all expenses to the barest minimal. Finally I joined Baba Dogo Catholic Computer College and did my training enabling me to land a clerical job with a property development firm in town.
Sometime later, I chanced upon an article that indicated that most of the greens consumed within my locality were contaminated as they were grown using sewer water. This made me resolve to make a small family garden for our greens. Armed with skill learnt from the internet, I made a sack farm on the idle plot adjacent to our house. This was such a success we soon began selling the surplus to our neighbors. With time, the demand increased and I got motivated to enlarge my farm giving birth to the agribusiness. Many customers love the produce because I sell directly from the farm, ensuring freshness and fair price.
My son is just two years old and love harvesting the tomatoes, sometimes even plucking off the green ones. I hope he will be interested in agribusiness and provide food to the tables of the ever-growing population.
Meanwhile the internet continues to provide me with tips on new skills that improves lives for instance, I have just built a simple solar oven using a carton box lined with aluminum foil and black material. Am also collecting materials for building my worm farm to make compost. Maybe one day I shall be doing pure organic farming, all thanks to my new hobby of gleaning information from the internet.

My Business

Principally, I am in agribusiness. I grow kales, coriander, onions and currently I am developing a farm for watermelons. Because I sell to my clients directly from the farm, my produce are in high demand as they are fresh and the pricing fair.
Healthy food is necessity to a prosperous and productive community and basically my business began more of by default rather than by design. My intention was to ensure my family obtained healthy greens, then we began selling the surplus ans due to growing demand, we ventured into expanding the business.
Costs for running my business include;

i) Irrigation Water - 34 dollars per month (approximately $410 annually)
ii) Labor - 50 dollars per month (approximately $600 annually)
iii)Hybrid seeds - 70 dollars per season
iv) Agricultural chemicals- 76 dollars per season

Income from the produce include;

Sale of kales & coriander -4 dollars per day
Tomatoes - 170 dollars per season
Onions - 160 dollars per season

( A season is after approximately 3 to 4 months)

When the business shall have grown in profits, I plan to save and build a house for my young family, and be able to send my son to a good school. Atleast one where pupils attend classes wearing shoes!

Project Proposal

This is Kennedy from Bondo, in Siaya county and I intend to raise funds for additional grevillea trees for my farm. Having planted an initial 120 units, I intend to add more for the second phase till I achieve my target of 1000 tree forest on my land.

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