What did you do before working with Zamura as the broiler farmer?
We were subsistence farmers. We also were traders of sorghum and we did it together, both of us. I would bring them from the wholesalers and we soak them and dry them and sell them to sorghum drinks makers.
What did you do before working with Zamura as the broiler farmer?
We were subsistence farmers. We also were traders of sorghum and we did it together, both of us. I would bring them from the wholesalers and we soak them and dry them and sell them to sorghum drinks makers.
How has working with Zamura impacted you? How much do you make now that you work with Zamura as the farmers?
Being a chicken farmer with support from Zamura helped us in many ways. I will start with our crop farming business; we got manure from the chickens but we also were able to buy more land and we thank Zamura for that. When we started making money from farming with Zamura, we started off by buying pigs. However, this did not go as planned so we decided to invest in more land and grew tomatoes, maize and beans using the manure as the government has always encouraged us. We also invested in goats and things have only improved and where we are is a great place.
When we started working with Zamura, we only had one coop of 100 chickens. However, at some point, we asked if it is possible to get the 2nd coop and our request was granted. Therefore, the money from the 2 coops helped us to buy more land as we have around 2 hectares of land ( located in different places) and invest in different things. We currently make around 400,000 RwF every two months from working with Zamura.
Our livelihood has significantly improved since we started working with Zamura as farmers. The children have all they need such as school materials, clothing, and even family health Insurance (Mutuelle de sante). And most importantly, we have enough food and since we have chickens, we can eat some and get necessary proteins yet it was hard before working with Zamura. With more finances and since we get all basics at home, there is no room for conflict as you know when there is not enough at home there is always potential for conflicts. But in addition to our Christian values and the fact that we have enough from since we started working with Zamura our lives have improved and we will continue to get better off. We have also been able to renovate our house since we make money. We have added glass windows and even cleaned it more using limestone and we will continue renovating it since we will continue working with Zamura.
What is next for your and what is your dream going forward?
We want to embed our work with Zamura and deeply get engaged so that we can even better improve our livelihood as people who have children in school. For instance, a girl, the one we just told you about who an adolescent girl and she is about to finish training in sewing and we want to buy her a sewing machine. Our wish is for Zamura to give us additional coops. Because we work together, my husband and I work together and so if Zamura can give us more coops, we would even make more money, invest in our children’s school fees and their nutrition so they don’t have poor health and we would therefore even continue to progress smoothly.
What is your message to other farmers who work with Zamura?
What we can tell other farmers is to put in a lot of effort and commitment to this business. Because if you don’t put in the effort in this farming you cannot make any profits; It requires a lot of efforts and commitments for you to make a profit. I also would like to emphasize that it is a must for the husband and wife to work together to run this business. If it is one person’s efforts, he/she would not do it well; it requires to work together.
They farmers need to compliment each other. If the wife/husband learned about the business first he/she should not think that it belongs to them alone. Instead, it belongs to both of them and they have to work together because if Zamura wanted to support farmers it didn’t do it for one person but for the family. This farming business with Zamura is therefore a family business not an individual one. Even the government of Rwanda wants a Rwandan family to develop as a family. When you have this business and you cultivate five pieces of vegetables they will multiply because of the manure and the family will have a healthy diet due to those vegetables in their diet. In addition, when they work together and make a profit in this business, they will never fail to get school fees for children, school materials for children, and even the health insurance so no one would fail to get treatment due to lack of Mutuelle de Sante. Therefore, we encourage other farmers to work together and know that through this business you can get most of your needs covered. It should be a joint effort to run this business.