Smart farms

: 02 November 2017; Hits: 11017

Poultry keeping transforms lives of chang'aa brewers in Uasin Gishu

The ‘Inua Mama na Kuku Initiative’ which was introduced by Uasin Gishu County government three years ago has transformed the lives of hundreds of women in the grassroots of the county. Techgaa, a group of reformed brewers is one of the more than 300 women groups that has benefited from the project which has impacted their lives greatly.

Sally Tanui, the Chairlady of Techgaa women group in Ainabkoi constituency says most of the women in her group depended on illicit brews as their source of income but the long arm of the law often caught up with them.

After frequent rubbing of shoulders with the authority, the brewers were motivated by a non-governmental organization called ADAPT (Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment) who reached out to them and asked them to consider their lives and the future of their children.

“Since we only rehabilitate alcoholics and brewers, we had no funds to help the women earn a sustainable income other than ‘chang’aa’ brewing so we approached the Uasin Gishu County government who provided 150 free chicks to the group” said Julia Kosgei, a coordinator at ADAPT.

Mrs .Ann-Cheno,a beneficiary of Inua Mama na Kuku initiative in Uasin-Gishu county.

To ensure the chicks were well taken care of, Sally notes that they made a timetable to feed the young chicken on rotation basis with two women taking responsibility per day. They fed the chicks on chicks mash at the rate of 30-50 g per day per bird. When the birds were 5 – 8 weeks, they were fed on growers mash (50 to 100 g per day).

“I used to brew alcohol and I could get a lot of disturbance from all over including the police, we also had a lot of problems dealing with drunkards who made our lives really hard. But since we started this group, we have abandoned the brewing business and concentrated on other businesses and our lives are now much better and ahead in very many issues” said Esther Jepkinyor, a member of Techgaa women group.

Related article: Discover hidden treasure in local chicken

The group now has more than 1,200 chickens which they sell to hotels within Eldoret town. The high demand for indigenous chicken in the market has ensured Techgaa has constant source of market for their birds. The group sells day old chicks at sh. 100 ,one month old at 300 and 2 months old at 400 shillings, fully mature chicken goes for not less than 1,000 shillings.

Related article: Farmers are making a kill with Kenbro chicken

The profits from the business have enabled the women maintain sustainable income and they no longer depend on their husbands. Their lives are at peace, children in school and the future looks bright.

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: 02 November 2017; Hits: 14004

Macadamia farming, saving Nyeri residents from alcoholism

Embracing macadamia farming by most small scale farmers in Nyeri who previously could hardly manage life due to low demand of their agricultural products is reviving hopes among alcoholics.

Macadamia which takes about 3-4 years to mature is preferred by the farmers as a safer way of making cool cash after coffee farming failed most of them because of erratic market and unscrupulous middlemen who dictated market price for their own gain.

“I had lost hope in farming when I realised I was not making any progress. I planted coffee in a section of my four acre land, harvested and sold to a trader who took them to an industry in Thika,” said David Chege, a farmer from Nyeri.

“At the first time he paid me well, after building trust he started paying in bits complaining that the market was bad before disappearing with my balance of about Sh50, 000.”

Stressed by the increased family needs that he hardly managed, Chege started taking alcohol. He could spend about Sh250 a week on alcohol till he met Ms. Wabui Rigaga Kilonzo, head of Agriculture and Special Projects at Afrimac Nut Company Ltd during macadamia farming promotion in Nyeri town.

After being informed about Afrimac’s products and services, Chege decided to partner with the company as a supplier of macadamia seedlings to fellow farmers in the region while at the same time growing his own.

Now it is almost a year, Chege’s life has change from one drunkard man to an ambassador of macadamia farming in the region. “I harvest between 30-50kg of macadamia every season which I sell at Sh200 a kilo and still earn a commission depending on my seedlings sales,” said Chege.

Geoffrey Mutua is another resident from Nyeri who due to lack of employment had started drinking alcohol to his stupor. He learnt the news about macadamia and Afrimac farming from a friend and got connected. That was the end of his alcoholic addiction and joblessness. He is now one of those dedicated farmers and workers with Afrimac.

According to Kilonzo, their company enters in partnership with groups of small scale farmers and individuals willing to grow macadamia. They offer them agronomical trainings, seedlings at a subsidized fee, free transport and market upon harvesting.

“We sell our seedlings at Sh350 per seedling but when we have a deal with farmers we can sell them at a lesser price given the fact that they will supply the company with the nuts eventually,” said Kilonzo.

Kilonzo says that macadamia can do well in most parts of the country as it comes in various varieties and that a keen farmer can rake up to one million yearly from the venture.

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: 31 October 2017; Hits: 15594

Keeping high number of chicken cuts farmer's production cost

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Mr. Henry Njuguna inspects his poultry farm in Naivasha. Before he had between 150-200 chicken which has increased to 1200 over the recent past.

In a time when most poultry farmers are crying foul about high cost of chicken feeds, drugs, among other production costs and market fluctuations, a Naivasha poultry farmer is managing his production costs by rearing many chicken to meet his economy of scale target.

Henry Njuguna of Kingdom Poultry Farm in Naivasha says poultry farming is enjoyable if a farmer has a big number of chicken because this saves extra transport, feed and drugs costs as compared to small number of chicken which requires the same services almost at the same costs but with lesser output thus lower income.

“It does not mean one must start big with poultry farming but good number of chicken saves a farmer much when it comes to production cost,” said Njuguna.

He keeps more than 1600 layers in a 50 by 100 piece of land. 1200 are growers of 14 weeks old and 600 layers which are over 20 weeks old. For growers of 8-20 weeks of age, he gives 80gm of growers mash per bird per day. To birds of over 20 weeks of age he feeds 120-130gm per bird, per day of layers mash.

Njuguna buys his feeds from Naivasha Feeders. A kilogram of growers’ feed is Sh30 and that of layers is Sh40. This means in 12 weeks he gives growers a total of 9kg and layers 10.08kg of feeds resulting to Sh270 for growers and about Sh400 for layers.

Because he uses personal transport, Njuguna cuts down his expenditure by 20 per cent monthly if he were to rely on public transport. He supplies his eggs to some of the big hotels in Naivasha on a weekly basis, tenders he is able to win due to his bigger production. Fuel takes about Sh500 and labour Sh1500. This he says is the same expenditure with the farmer with less chicken.

“I collect between 12-15 eggs on a daily basis and by the end of the week I have enough to meet the high demands in town,” said Njuguna. “My cost of transport and labour is almost the same with that farmer with less than 200 chicken,” he added.

Before he had between 150-200 chicken as he was starting up in the venture. Transport cost him Sh1200 while labour Sh2000, double the amount he is using now. He also had difficulties with winning eggs supply tenders as he fell short of the demands.

Njuguna buys eight weeks chicks from Kenchick costing him Sh110 per chick. With this he avoids the cost of feeding which is Sh45 per kilogram per chick saving about Sh75,600 that he could spent in eight weeks.

Njuguna owes his success from trainings and agricultural shows he attends. He says poultry farming is tricky and a farmer can incur losses even from unnecessary wastages which arises from a number of things like poorly designed feed troughs which can result to 10% of the feed is wasted.

“When feeders are half-filled, only 3% of the feed is wasted than when it is two-thirds-full. Wastage also arises from theft by rats and wild birds if they have access to the poultry unit,” said Njuguna.

He says their main challenge as poultry farmers is cheap imported eggs which disrupts local prices.

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