Rita is an accountant by training but has lots of passion for agriculture. She approached her parents after her studies at the University that she wanted to venture into agriculture but she was discouraged and was advised to search for white collar jobs. Rita was not ready for any limitation as she made use of the opportunity provided by IITA Youth Agripreneurs to achieve her dream. Read the excerpt below for her story.
My name is Ritah. I am 28 years old and an accountant by training. I am passionate about farming and started at an early age although my parents kept discouraging me from going into agriculture because they thought that it is not a white-collar job and so I would be making a loss by not practicing what I studied-accountancy.
I had the opportunity of being trained by IITA Youth Agripreneurs here in Uganda and decided to venture into piggery after trying my hands on a lot of things like horticulture- growing different vegetable crops.
This choice proved more profitable because, with our peri-urban location in Mukono, this meant that I have the Kampala and Mukono market.
My piggery farm is currently accommodating 30 pigs in number. I have 5 mothers, 2 bores and 23 piglets ranging in the months of 2-5.
For the past two years, I have been selling both mature pigs as well as piglets. I have now decided to take a business opportunity in pig slaughtering and supply. I have been inspired into slaughtering these animals because I have recognized that I get more income than what I earn through the selling of young piglets or as live mature animals ready for slaughter.
For example, I would sell a piglet of 2 months at $27 and a mature animal at an average of $135.
My new model is to buy from other piggery farmers, slaughter and sell as a finished product because most of the people that came to purchase pigs preferred to move with slaughtered rather than live pigs. From this, I came up with a solution and constructed an abattoir and supplying my customers with clean and quality pork carcasses. The business was built on addressing the hygiene challenge and the informality in the piggery supply chain in areas around Mukono.
Although I have been operating the business for some time now, my linkage with IYA changed my orientation about business as I learnt how to prepare business plans, mobilize funds for my business and also adding a value proposition.