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- September 27, 2024
Esther Thamangiwa is a 32-year-old woman from Ngokwe village, Traditional Authority Kadewere in Chiradzulu district. She is married and staying with her family. Esther first wrote the Malawi Junior Certificate of Education in 2014 and failed the exams. She went on to repeat in 2016 and she did better.
Esther started small scale businesses of selling charcoal and doughnuts to keep ends meet of her daily needs. Later she raised money through growing of vegetables, tomatoes and maize. After selling the produce she decided to venture into a dairy farming business. She bought a bull (male cow) after raising it she sold it on a good price and used the proceeds to buy a dairy cow and after 6 months she started milking and she delivers the milk to Chisangalalo Dairy Milk Bulking Group where she is a member. To date She has 2 female cows that produces 25 and 10 litres making a total of 35 liters of milk per day and 1,035 litres per month which yields about MWK287, 250 per month. Community Action for People Participation (CAPP) in collaboration with the District Agriculture office and ILO has taught us the proper animal feeding and feed formulation which has improved the daily milk yield from 22 liters of milk per day to 35 litters per day. Through the Pro Agro youth project we have learned the dairy animal management i.e
We are happy that the training is taking place in our local satellite center at Thumbwe Agriculture Extension Planning Area on a day release basis that’s giving us time to take good care of our dairy animals.
Esther is a married woman with 4 children. Her husband is a builder by profession and he goes around building houses in the areas. Esther is a passionate woman the dairy farming who believes in women empowerment and does not want to be overly dependent on her husband.
Esther, started the dairy farming business in October 2021. Eighteen months down the line, she is earning an average of 280,000 Malawi Kwacha a month. She is able to buy food and most of their family needs, pay school fees for their children from the proceeds of dairy business. She has also managed to buy iron sheets and have constructed a house. Apart from dairy farming, Esther also grows vegetables and tomatoes for sale using the manures from the animals. Her two immediate future plans are to buy one more dairy cow and also start selling maize bran feed to other farmers so that she increases the dairy business. She is very grateful to CAPP and ILO for the dairy management and entrepreneurship skills gained.
Esther delivering the milk to bulking center
