Helen has been practicing dairy farming for the past 18 years since 2001. She began with rearing one cattle which could only produce up to two litres or less but now she is a successful owner of five diary cattles which produce 15 litres each.
She says, ‘I started dairy farming back in 2001 with one cattle which would only provide me with milk for my household use alone. The milk was less than two litres and sometimes even less than that. In 2014, I was mapped by GROOTS Kenya and grouped together with other diary farmers from Tegat and we were taken through #KILIMO BIASHARA training aimed at educating us into being successful dairy farmers.
The training taught us how to choose the best dairy cattle and the best type of food to give a dairy cow.
After the training I went back home and talked to my husband and we decided to buy another cow based on our learnings. After buying the cow we started to plant the taught dairy feeds for our cow. The cow would produce up to 10 litres of milk per day and that was enough for our house consumption and we sold the rest to our neighbors.
In 2016, I applied for seed fund loan of Ksh: 200,000 through GROOTS Kenya to expand my dairy farming. I bought two dairy cattles that costed Ksh 80,000 each and spent the rest of the money to buy chaff cutter to help me process the cow silage.
I choseed seed fund loan from GROOTS Sacco since the loan application process is easier for a grassroots woman like me and the loan return payments are flexible and affordable as compared to the bank loans.
Right now I own five diary cattles, two are expecting and the remaining three do produce 15 liters of milk each . The profit I get from the selling the milk enables me to repay my loan in time with less of a hustle.
I am grateful for KILIMO BIASHARA training by GROOTS Kenya. Since then, my life has changed a lot. I never saw myself having more than three cattle that would have produced more than 10 litrers of milk but now, I own five which produce up to about 15 litres each.
Asante Sana GROOTS Kenya , I am whom I am today because of your support. May you continue to touch and empower more grassroots women.’
