Unity is Strength

Jane Kamunzyu 48years is married to Philip Kamunzyu Ndonyi from Mukonzo village, Athi location, Kitui South sub county in Kitui County and have five children. Jane and her family own a 2-acre piece of land where they practice small scale farming but due to unreliable rainfall, the production is never sufficient to feed the family. Jane and the family used to depend on the husband’s income and complimented by rain fed agriculture that had very low yield and was hardly enough to take care of his family due to depressed rainfall experienced in the area. Jane used to harvest 2bags of maize, 3bags of green grams which was not enough and the local poultry breeds took a while to mature and inadequate knowledge in poultry management. With Janes family not able to have stable income and food, her children were not able to religiously attend school due to lack of school fees thus affecting their performance in school and in addition, the family oftenly reported malnutritional cases.

When members from Mukonzo village formed the Ndwae Ngone Mwaitu group in 2011, Jane was a member and the group was to engage in merry go round activities and table banking in an effort to foster cohesion among the women. The group then registered the group and even put in place a constitution.

When Kitungati Community Based Organization was formed, the Ndwae Ngone Mwaitu group was trained on different interventions and technologies including trainings on poultry keeping, good agricultural practices, village saving and loaning activity (VSLA), linkage to financial institutions and market linkage and access and Jane gained interest in poultry farming. The group ventured into saving and started engaging in the Village savings and loaning activities. Jane saved for 3months and took a Kshs. 12,000 that she used to purchase 100-layer chicks. With the trainings on poultry management, Jane was able to collect three trays of eggs and she would sell one at Kshs. 350 amounting to Kshs. 31,500 in a month with a net profit of Kshs. 15,000. Eight months in the poultry keeping activity, Jane used the proceeds to purchase 150 improved chicken and food for the chicks thus increasing the stock to 450 and she now sells one crate of eggs at Kshs. 650 earning a profit of Kshs. 112,500 within three months as they have ready market.

“The Trainings conducted by ADSE have positively changed my life as I no longer struggle to feed my family. After adopting the climate smart technologies disseminated to us by ADSE in collaboration with the ministry of Agriculture, the production in my farm increased to 8 bags of Maize, 6 bags of beans and 12 bags of cowpeas and that was enough to feed my family. I have also established a kitchen garden where I plant vegetables for the family and the chicken are now frequently vaccinated by animal health service providers who were linked to us by ADSE and the chicken mortality has greatly reduced” Jane comments.

Jane now has stable income and is able to pay school fees for her children and the vegetables from her kitchen garden are the source of nutritive vegetables for her family.

“I am happy because I have a stable income and I can cater for my family needs and this has been possible by the knowledge and skills I acquired from trainings done by ADSE.” Says a grateful Jane.