Poultry business: Why training is key

Greetings to Dr Messo,

I’m Peter Macharia, interested in starting a poultry farm, but I wanted to know if Kenchic offers training programmes to starting farmers, if so, how can I join. And what are the details and location.

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Dear Macharia,

In most social groups in Kenya, in this era of joblessness, it is common to see young people keen to venture into profitable agribusiness ventures.

Time and again you hear the vibe on poultry farming as the most promising business for young start-up beginners.

Great startup

If you go into Facebook, there are hundreds of advertisement on sale of day-old chicks, 1 week-old, 2-week-old kienyeji chicks etc. It is indeed true that starting poultry farming is relatively less intensive compared to other farming activities, all you need is a small piece of idle land where you can construct a small pen of 10ft x 10ft for 100 broilers or 50 slow growing breed types for egg production.

Be ready

The next thing is to align yourself with an existing farmer for advice and tips on what to do when things go out of control. This type of farming with limited know how can only propel you up to one stage of subsistence and will soon run out of steam in the event of slight change in seasonal demand for meat or eggs.

Simple business plan

For a great start, I would advise you to draw a simple business plan on your main aim or vision. Although in the beginning you intend to start small, you must think big for your business. If you are staying in a rental property and you want to construct a poultry unit in this land, have an agreement with your landlord on lease occupancy status to avoid being kicked out when you are on your take off.

Kenchic offers comprehensive training

Kenchic has 10 one-stop poultry centres distributed within the country where you can get expert advice for start-ups, management tips and technical services.

We run once per week training school for beginners on brooding, feeding, watering, disease management, bio-security, vaccination and marketing of your final products. Our poultry centres are managed by professionally trained vet surgeons and paraprofessional all registered by the Kenya Veterinary Board. We also stock all items poultry and can visit your farm on prior arrangement for advice and postmortem services.

We have a poultry specific laboratory located at Industrial area Nairobi, fully equipped to carry out microbiology and serology services. The poultry centres are located at Exsan house, Industrial area, Ruiru, Ruai, Kiambu, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Meru, Mombasa and Mtwapa. Our services are free for all new farmers and any old farmer experiencing challenges in managing their flock.

For more info contact, Poultry Managers located in all our centres near you.

[Dr Watson Messo Odwako, Head Vet. Kenchic email: [email protected]]