27 March 2018, Makueni, Nganwa, Kenya - A general view of Mary Musyoka's farm. Mary Musyoka is a farmer, working on local poultry production. Through value chain chickens are sold in big supermarkets in Nairobi. She says: 'I dig now. I don't dislike it, now I like it. I get dirty. I don't see it as tiring. Before I saw it tiring, but now I like it. Because I get profit. The more I put effort, the more I profit. After we got trained, now there were some trainers, who came to our home, they trained us about poultry keeping. Then I thought it over and over and I said I will try. Then I bought two chickens. I started with chicken. Those two hens, they laid eggs, I hutched them, each fifteen that is thirty. After they hutched I cared for the chicks. Thirty of them. Then they grew, they started laying eggs. I hutched them again. Thirty hens plus these two, they became thirty-two. Each fifteen fifteen eggs. That is how I started growing. They multiplied up to 150. Now I started selling them to, my first lot I sold to Machakos'.
The Increasing Smallholder Productivity and Profitability (ISPP) project aims to strengthen the capacity of female- and male-headed smallholder households in Kenya's semi-arid lands to manage their farming businesses more reliably. By increasing knowledge and skills on improved agricultural technologies, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and production of nutrient-rich foods, smallholder farmers are empowered to improve their individual consumption and sell excess to markets. The profits generated from these sales can then be used to further diversify their diets.