Lead image for From food waste to Sh600,000 a month: How a Meru farmer is redefining livestock business.
Rebeka Kendi Mwenda steps out of her Toyota Probox car. Her farm welcomes her the way it always does. Peacocks squawk, Ayam Cemani chickens cluck, and pigs snort somewhere nearby. This is home for the woman many know simply as Kendijoy.
She is just from the market when the Nation catches up with her. “I hope I didn't keep you long; I am just from the slaughterhouse where I have sold 70 pigs,” she says as she joyfully greets us.
Kendi is the founder of Aroma Farm in Naari, Meru County. Aroma Farm sits on a quarter acre of land, though she plans to expand. The farm has a wide range of ornamental birds, fish and pigs, and it gives the perfect bucolic feel.
But this success story did not start with peacocks or fancy chickens. It started with a simple idea about waste. Kendi is a caterer by profession and has been in the business for the past 10 years. She runs Kendijoy Solutions, an outside catering company. About six years ago, four years after being in the catering business, she noticed something that many would consider a problem.
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“I would be left with a lot of leftovers after the events. From vegetable and fruit peels to cooked food and all the in between, there was always something to discard,” she reminisces.
Instead of throwing the waste away, she decided to put it to use. She bought three pigs to feed on the leftovers. That small decision would change everything. Within a year, the three pigs had multiplied into many more.
“When I started with the three pigs, it was solely for the purpose of managing waste. But pigs reproduce very fast, and they give birth to many piglets in one go.”