She keeps fish, dairy cows, poultry, rabbits, bees and grows passion fruits, all on one acre. But that is not all, she also sells tree seedlings and runs an agrovet and a bakery.
“I have been farming for more than 24 years,” says Ruto, who started with dairy cows. “I would get about 90 litres of milk from my four animals which I was delivering to the then Kenya Cooperative Creameries.”
About two years into the farming, the creameries started to reject her milk saying it was of low quality. The losses opened her eyes, persuading her of the need to diversify her agribusiness and find a market for her milk.
After a series of training by the Kenya Dairy Board on value addition and animal feeds, Ruto started the first milk bar called Chemaluk in Sotik town.
“At the time, it did not make sense to people because everyone kept cows and there was no market for milk. But I proved them wrong,” says Ruto, who started to add value to the milk by making yogurt and fermented milk. She still does this.
A litre of fresh milk goes for Sh.60 while yogurt fetches Sh.120. “On Sundays we ferment the milk and store it in a deep freezer. We sell without adding any flavours.” Since she started selling the milk through the bar, she has never looked back.
“A milk processing plant buys a litre of milk at between Sh.32 and Sh.35. This is too low compared to what I earn from selling it myself,” says Ruto, who has four Friesian cows that give her 112 litres of milk daily after feeding them molasses and napier grass, among other fodder.
Before she started farming, Ruto used to sell second-hand clothes and vegetables in Sotik town. She then borrowed Sh.15,000 from her chama (savings group) to start the dairy farm. Twenty four years ago an improved breed dairy cow costed Sh.3,000.
The farmer also keeps 200 broilers at any time which she sells to hospitals. “I sell the broilers to Tenwek Hospital and Litein Mission Hospital. I supply 200 birds to the hospitals a month at Sh.450 each.”
“If local people give us a call, we slaughter the birds, pack and sell to them,” she adds.
She started her tree seedlings business three years ago growing eucalyptus and cypress that go for Sh.20 each and indigenous varieties like mobet, rerendet, lemak and sorget, which she sells at Sh.30 each.
“It is good to diversify in agribusiness because if you can’t find a market for one product, you sell the other.” She started with 1,000 seedlings that earned her an average of Sh.20,000 in a year, increasing them to 3,000 as demand expanded to earn Sh.60,000 last year.
She has 32 beehives, with each producing 10kg of honey after three months. “With good weather, we get 150kg of natural honey which we sell at Sh.600 a kilo in Sotik town.”
With over 100 grafted purple and yellow passion fruit plants, she is able to harvest at least 30kg which she uses to make juice and sell at Chemaluk Milk Bar for Sh.40 a glass.
Last year, she ventured into tilapia fingerling business in a small pond next to her house. “I started the pond because farmers would go for fingerlings as far as Siaya County. I feed them on pellets and so far I have sold 300 fingerlings.”
More income comes from training she offers to farmers and agriculture students at Sh.300 per visitor. The 59-year-old takes pride in her Chemaluk Farm and Agrovet Company she registered in 2010. The agribusiness has been the source of her livelihood and that of her six grown-up children, who help her run the family venture and she pays them a commission every month.
“Judy Chebet runs the agrovet in Sotik town that I started in 1992. Martin Rotich is in-charge of the dairy enterprise, Beatrice Chepkoech and Tyson Rotich run the food technology and bakery business. Sophia Chebet runs the agro-forestry project while the last born Stacey Chepkemoi is the overall leader of the family business,” says Ruto.
On March 12, 2007, Ruto received an award from former President Mwai Kibaki for good economic use of land. Prof Mathews Dida, a lecturer at Maseno University’s Department of Agriculture, says mixed farming has many advantages.
“Animals and crops have a symbiotic support for each other. When you have animals, you source manure from them for your crops which cuts down costs. There is better utilization of land in mixed farming as opposed to mono-farming.”
However, according to Prof Dida, the challenge with mixed farming is that a farmer may be unable to maximise productivity because of resource competition and divided attention. Ruto has had her share of challenges in the different agribusinesses. She lost her four cattle when they ate poisoned feeds. Luckily, she had insured them.
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