How I make money from three-acre piece of land

When Kasifa Odu took a loan in 2010 from the Micro Finance Support Centre (MSC) to start a farming project, she was not exactly sure how the venture would turn out.
Two years later, the venture has blossomed into a range of farm projects at her mixed farm.
The farmer is into poultry keeping, citrus fruits farming, banana growing and livestock farming.

How Odu started
It all started when in 2010 Odu, a Senior Two dropout, saw an advert in a newspaper inviting young people to apply for loans from the MSC through Olio Savings Cooperative Society. Olio is an affiliate to MSC.
She tried her luck. “I was surprised when the officers from the fund came to assess my land, history with the Sacco, as well as my project proposal, and concluded that I qualified for the Shs250,000 loan,” says Odu. On the farm, Odu established a poultry farm, housing kuroilers, broilers and turkeys.

From the poultry, Odu is able to earn about Shs5m per season. She sells mature chicken to hotels in Serere, Soroti and Arua districts. But it was not easy when she started. Odu lost her birds to diseases such as Newcastle. The disease attacked her hens and killed quite a number.

She acknowledges that there are always many variables that often come into play, and which can easily shatter a farmer’s dream. These include new diseases and market glut.
To cushion herself against this, Odu does not rely on one crop. She also grows groundnuts, citrus fruits such as oranges, finger millet, sorghum, sunflower and bananas.
“I was lucky that I had diversified. The losses put me down, but I was able to pick up through sales from other crops such as bananas and milk.”

Expansion
With the returns from the sales, Odu is comfortably able to cover her overheads, service her loan at Shs100,000 a month and keep a tidy balance.
“The biggest challenge in farming is market and knowing what is selling at what price at any given time. I’m constantly doing research and avoiding traditional outlets such as open-air markets where farmers are at the mercy of traders,” she explains.

She points out that farming is capital-intensive and for her to make profit, she only goes for crops that will fetch more money – the very reason she has invested her profits in dairy farming.
“In the open air market, you find traders buying each kuroiler bird at Shs15,000 and re-selling it elsewhere at Shs25,000. The trick is to navigate through this web of traders and middlemen to get the end of the market chain. This is why I have a full-time marketer,” said Odu who has established a poultry market in Arua.

Turning point
Odu says, she managed to secure a second loan of Shs500,000 in 2014 to bolster her produce business, a loan that she serviced for five months, before settling for now a farm loan of Shs1.5m.
“I started with local chicken on free range; unfortunately it met with the outbreak of disease from the neighbouring homes, dealing me a blow but I never lost sense of direction, I carried on,” she explains.
As barrier mechanism against spread of disease, Odu says she procured five rolls of chain wire to enclose her home from the free moving local chickens from neighbours causing chicken disease.
“Since then, my project has had a growing curve and at the same time growing me financially,” she says.
After fencing off her farm, she says, its then that she shifted to carry on with kuroilers, broilers and turkeys, and to this day, she has no regrets.

“I have managed to consolidate my gains in modern farming, from the proceeds that I get from poultry I have managed to buy myself Friesian cows, and improved heifers.”
Odu adds that, she dedicates most of her time to looking after her poultry unlike other farm projects, where she has leverage to have them manned by causal labourers with little supervision from herself.
“Poultry needs urgent attention and this can only be done by the farmer because when you distance yourself from it, it can be messed up,” the Olio based farmer says.

Market
Odu prides herself in having more than 400 birds whose market is readily available within Teso districts. She has also established a sales outlet in Arua District.
She sells each kuroilers between Shs25,000 and Shs30,000 depending on the size.

Advice
Odu has ensured her enterprises are staggered all year round. “I make sure every new season I plant a little of everything. This ensures that on average throughout the year, I am selling something and I have a regular cash coming in. It also makes the farm self-sustaining,” she says.

Eventually, she plans to extend her farming to cover all the nine-and-a-half-acres. One thing she has learned is that getting to the point of optimum returns is a long and painful process. “Always start small and expand gradually. Do not jump in expecting quick profits because at one time or another, you will burn your fingers. And when this happens, you must have the resolve to pick yourself up and forge a way ahead. In the long run, farming is rewarding,” she advices

Achievements
“I have managed to lead a modest life, I can afford school fees for my children, I have a well furnished home, solar powered with fairly enough necessities to keep me entertained,” says Odu.
Odu says her dairy project that is a product from the poultry proceeds, also earns her some substantial amount of Shs30,000 daily from the sale of milk.
To also keep her citrus, banana farm flourishing and high yielding, she adds, that every dropping from chicken and cow dung are used as fertilizer.

Listening to Odu, poultry needs timely vaccination and enough feed fo the birds, adding that once this is adhered to, the sky will be your limit.
“In a year, I am able to realise more than Shs10m, clean of farm cost and family responsibilities,” she reveals.
In the near future with support from MSC, she says she looks at having more than 3,000 birds.