I Have Market for Eggs, Where Are the Farmers?

Dressed in a white overcoat, gumboots, red dress and a matching cap, Rose Nyamunga scoops fish feeds from a bucket and sprinkles them in a fish pond. The fish scramble for the feeds.

Nyamunga, the Kisumu Woman Representative, owns the two-acre fish farm on the outskirts of Kisumu town. The farm has six hatcheries, 10 fish ponds and several breeding cages. “Welcome to my fish farm,” says a cheerful Nyamunga.

The catchiest thing is that the politician has a poultry farm, says she started the farm in 2013 with the help of her husband after realising the bulk of fish and eggs consumed in the region were from Uganda. Most traders in the county import the items from the neighbouring countries through Busia and Serare border points because of low supply.

“It pained me that we were importing things that we can produce locally. My aim of starting the ventures, particularly the poultry business, was to try and provide local farmers with affordable but quality chicks to boost poultry farming,” says Nyamunga of the business that she invested over Sh4 million, most which went to buying incubators.

Besides the incubators, she further bought 5,000 fertilised eggs for hatching to get started. However, she has since contracted over 100 farmers keeping Kari indigenous chickens who supply her with fertilised eggs.

“We buy the eggs at Sh30 each, which is higher than the market price but still I have a huge deficit. All my 11 incubators have not operated optimally since I started,” she says.

Nyamunga only hatches 4,000 eggs yet she has a capacity of 40,000 after every 21 days. “I am really in need of fertilised eggs to hatch because I want to empower our farmers. If there is a farmer out there with the quality I want, then he should supply me.”

She sells the chicks to farmers at Sh85 instead of Sh120 market price. Bernard Otieno is among farmers who have benefitted from the low-cost chicks. He keeps over 900 chicks at his home in Kisumu. “We pick the chicks after they have been vaccinated which helps in cutting costs,” says Otieno, who sells eggs.

Nyamunga says if the poultry and fish sectors are given the attention they deserve across the country, they can uplift the livelihoods of thousands of people.

“As Kisumu, we can export the eggs and fish to other counties and even to Tanzania and Uganda if people rear chickens and keep fish. Fish from Lake Victoria has dwindled thus we must embrace ponds,” says Nyamunga, who sells only male tilapia fingerlings to farmers at Sh3 each, instead of Sh5.

Most farmers, according to her, prefer the male fingerlings because they grow faster and do not divert energy into reproduction.

“I hatch both the male and female fingerlings but after birth, we place them in caged ponds where we reverse the female ones into male using feeds. The process takes 42 days, enabling us to have between 10,000 and 30,000 fingerlings after every two weeks.”

“On average, I sell over 20,000 fingerlings every month to farmers but demand is still double that amount,” she adds of the project that has so far reached 20 groups.

The poultry project, on the other hand, she says has reached 1,500 farmers but her aim is to cover the entire county, and if possible neighbouring ones. She says that being in farming helps her spend time wisely when she is not attending to political matters as she reaches out to farmers who have bought her fingerlings and eggs.

“I know my projects can make a difference but I cannot do everything on my own. As I struggle to offer farmers chicks and fingerlings at subsidised price, the county should help me in reviving the ponds and promoting poultry farming.”

By ANGELA OKETCH

More by this Author

The Greatest Mind In Agribusiness I Have Met So Far: Simon Mbuto

This place looks ordinary, just like any other by-the-road establishment along the winding Nairobi-Nakuru highway. Its name too is kept so simple one can easily think “…ABC? The guy must have run out of ideas.”

For a long time I passed through this place without taking any keen interest in it. During one of my chats about agribusiness, a friend asked whether I knew ABC. I struggled to remember where I had seen it, which I had to because she seemed too ready to get disappointed if I didn’t. “I would like you to meet him.” The way that was said sparked great curiosity in me. I had to meet him and luckily, we managed to get an appointment with Simon Mbuto, the owner of Agri-Business Centre.

As we took seats in a small office at ABC, Simon, a well and soft spoken man started telling us the story I couldn’t wait to hear.  “Although Agri Business Centre is a fairly developed business focusing in farm inputs, dairy, aquaculture and poultry activities both in production and value addition, it has not had a lush beginning.” He said.

“As you know, farming has not been viewed as a business in Kenya for a long time.” He continued. “Unfortunately, I initially swam with the currents and the best I did was to set up a dairy farming unit in my backyard. But I like reading and travelling a lot. It is through this that I got inspired to develop ABC.”

“So what is the idea behind ABC?” I eagerly asked.

“Do you know McDonalds?” Simon asked and my answer was an obvious yes. He had barely finished asking what their business is when I shouted “selling hamburgers” and felt a little less challenged. He laughed. 

“The business of McDonalds is not selling hamburgers.” He said and you can imagine my reaction. “Their main business is real estate. The hamburger business is the face of the business. Notice that most of the McDonalds are located along main highways. What they do is that they identify a location, buy the land and then set up the McDonalds hamburger eatery. Owning to the big name of McDonalds, the value of land around the franchise shoots up and they sell it.” That left me mouth agape. I had never thought of it that way.

“So how does that relate to ABC?” My inevitable question came. Simon smiled and then went on.

“ABC is the face of our real business as much as it is part of our business.” I noted the use of ‘our’ instead of ‘my’. “We are farmers and our main business is production. I work with farmers who have come together to form Bamboo Rafiki Self Help Group. They have an immense potential for production which ABC seeks to promote.” He went on.

“ABC owns two plots measuring 2.5 and 5.0 acres about 3km from here. On the 2.5 acre land is our Zero Grazing Dairy Unit and Chicken Breeding facility. On the 5.0 acre land, we grow fodder and are currently developing another dairy and poultry unit there. Together with Bamboo Rafiki Self Help Group, we plan to have a minimum of 12,000 improved Kienyenji/Rainbow Rooster chicken (majority cocks) by the end of the last quarter of 2015.”

The real ABC is still in the mind…

“The ABC you see now is simply a consolidation of the ideas making up the bigger picture. On this plot that we are seated, we have 0.5 acres of space on which the actual Agri Business Centre will be set. It will consist of a restaurant, a garden, a water-well, fish ponds and a chicken-run.

The construction of the restaurant is underway and since we want to provide a relaxing stopover for travelers, we have called in landscaping experts to create the ambience. There will also be an ample parking space even for busses. We intend to install one or two dispensers for a quick serve of fresh milk.

The garden is also in place, and apart from providing the fresh supplies for the restaurant, it will also be redesigned so that it offers a quick refreshing get-away. Can you imagine yourself in pathways surrounded by lush green vegetables being watered by sprinklers?

The chicken-run is also not complete yet. We intend to have about 50 rainbow roosters to colour the run. The design will allow the brightly coloured roosters to perch high such that travelers can see their beauty from the road. This will be besides the fish ponds which will also serve the restaurant.” By this time, I could clearly see the beauty of the place.

“Since ABC is just the face, the farms will also have the same unique touch of design. We will have large flat screens on site to entertain the visitors and showcase what the farms bear. We will also allow people to visit the farms and buy directly from us.”

Simon is surely one of the great people bringing a revolution, turning agriculture into agribusiness. It is clear how far the venture would have been by now had he started earlier. Just like I have always been, Simon believed there is gold, especially for the youth in farming. What touched me the most is that he is working with youths in Bamboo Rafiki Self Help Group. He even invites interested people to and organisations to invest in ABC which he says will be replicated in many other parts of the country.

Kwa Kweli, tunaweza make doh na farming.

How Immaculate Built An All-Round, Thriving Poultry Empire At 23

Matatus, boda boda riders and heavy trucks are competing for the little space left by earth movers constructing the Kisumu-Busia highway. We manage negotiate our way to Tiengre Shopping Centre, a 20-minute drive from Kisumu Town.

From here, one can see Kit Mikayi rock, a famous tourist attraction to the north and to the east, you can see aeroplanes landing and taking off from the Kisumu International Airport. We are looking for a young farmer who has set up a poultry empire here. He name is Immaculate Ochieng and her farm is called Green Farm.

We find her busy tending to her birds when we arrive. Her little child tucked firmly on her back, Immaculate, 23, goes about her business in her poultry farm with a lot of ease. She puts more layers mash in the feeding troughs, collects eggs and cleans the water cans.

She has 700 kuroiler chicken, 200 which are cockerels and the rest hens. “I sell eggs and birds for meat and hatch chicks. I have been doing this for over three years now,” she says.

Immaculate started chicken rearing as a hobby in 2012. She bought a 60 capacity egg incubator using her ‘chama’ savings. She also bought two crates of eggs at Sh1,800. Through the support of her husband and the youth group in which she is a member, her business has expanded.

Poultry Empire

Immaculate is an all-round farmer who is carving a niche in the business as she works on her dream of building a poultry empire. She also makes poultry feeds using a machine called drum mixer that she owns. She feeds her chicken with some and sells the rest to other farmers. Immaculate further has a 3,000 egg capacity incubator that she uses to hatch eggs for sale. Also, she offers brooding services to farmers.

“I started this business after getting tired of being a stay-at-home mum. I talked to my husband and he agreed to support me. He bought the birds and built the poultry houses. I later bought the incubator at Sh44,000 and the feed mixer.”

The farmer collects 860 eggs after every two days. From this, she keeps 350 for hatching. She sells unfertilized ones at Sh330 per crate while the fertilised Sh900. “I put the fertilised eggs into the incubator after every seven days to ensure I have chicks all the time.”

For brooding services, which involves vaccinating chicks, keeping them in the brooder for several days and feeding them, the charges differ depending on the age of the birds. The cost ranges from Sh130 to Sh240 per chick per week, with brooding a month old birds attracting the highest fees.

She says many farmers buy three- week old birds because they are easy to manage as they have been vaccinated. She sells between 300 and 500 chicks each week.

She sells mature cocks at Sh1,200 and hens at Sh1,000. She disposes the cocks at four months at Sh500 to avoid inbreeding. If she does not get ready market, she separates them from the rest and waits for them to mature so that she can sell at Sh1,200.

“I market my products through Seeds of Gold and free online classified websites,” says Immaculate, who is studying an online computer science programme at the University of the People, California, US.

To make feeds, she buys the ingredients that include maize germ, sunflower and cotton seed cake, pollard, grounded shells and salt (iodine) from dealers in Kisumu. She says salt is important during the formulation of feeds because lack of it in feeds or diet may result to diseases.

A 50kg bag of maize germ retails at Sh860 while the same amount of pollard goes for Sh1,050. “It is advisable to have one reliable supplier to buy the ingredients from for accountability. Besides, some of the ingredients sold in the market are contaminated and may affect the chicken,” says Immaculate, who researches heavily on poultry farming on the internet, and sells 50kg at Sh2,000.

Balancing

For shells picked from the shores of Lake Victoria, she gets a kilo at Sh25 from a supplier in Ahero market. “I have no problem balancing between studies, my family and rearing poultry. I submit my assignments every week which gives me time to concentrate on poultry and family.”

“As a married woman, I would get visitors, and I preferred cooking for them chicken. This prompted me to start rearing the birds,” says Immaculate, who is a member of Mazingira Youth Group, which gives her loans whenever she is in distress.

However, it has not been all rosy. Only 28 eggs out of the two crates she started with hatched. “By then, I had no idea that there was something like a candler to determine whether the eggs are capable of hatching.”

Poultry farming has made her sit with the high and mighty in the farming business. She recently travelled to Israel to learn from farmers there. The trip was sponsored by the UN Women, which seeks to equip them with leadership skills.

Jackson Achila, a poultry consultant based in Homa Bay at Blue Bound Farm, says the common poultry diseases are Newcastle, infectious bronchitis and gumboro, foul pox, foul typhoid and salmonella. “When birds are confined in one place, a farmer should be careful because one of these diseases may break out. However, these diseases can be managed through vaccination.”

He says it’s important to keep records of all birds especially the history of the parent birds so that the farmer is able to keep track of the diseases that have at one time affected them.

He advises farmers not rely on internet because they can be misled. “Unless it’s a site that gives the opinion of a well-known poultry consultant, then be cautious to use the information.”

By Everline Okewo, Nation Media.

More by this Author