Microlending Chickens and Entrepreneurship: Empowering Poor Rural Families in Kenya

摘要

This paper is about a project that combines entrepreneurship and microlending—two currently significant concepts in international development. The purpose of the project was to provide poor families with a source of income and protein-rich food through microlending chicken start-up support. Its method was to partner with Nutri-Fresh Farm & Agri-Hub, a non-governmental organization for creating agricultural entrepreneurs from subsistence farmers and youth in Kenya. Each family signed a Poultry Project Loan Agreement stating their obligation to repay—without interest—in the form of mature poultry cocks the costs of the chicks, feeds, vaccines, training and follow-up until the chicks attained maturity at six months. The repaid amounts would be invested in new families. Recently Simon Wachieni, Director of Nutri-Fresh Farm & Agri-Hub, confirmed that all families so far involved have eggs for sale and as a regular source of protein for themselves, that they increase their asset through the additional hatching of their own chicks, and that they are repaying the loan. Our final conclusion is that this project combining microlending chickens and entrepreneurship has been successful and that it can be useful elsewhere as well.