Western wanted brown kienyeji chicken, Kalro has created it

Chicken is synonymous with communities in Western Kenya and a popular delicacy in many parts of the country.

It did not therefore come as a surprise when the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation yielded to demands by people from the region for a specific colour of improved indigenous chicken, and developed one.

Kalro unveiled the improved brown indigenous chicken variant at its Kakamega None Ruminant Institute in on March 20.

The research agency also launched a poultry breeding and multiplication unit in an attempt to satisfy demand for quality breeds by farmers in Western Kenya. 

“In response to the unique consumer demands in the Western region for a brown improved chicken, we have now introduced a brown variant KC3 which is being launched today,” Kalro Director General Dr Eliud Kireger said. 

The new breed is disease-resistant, requires less feed, grows faster and lays more eggs per year compared to the initial two improved variants named KC1 which is spotted and KC2 (black) that were launched in 2019.

It is well adapted to tropical climatic conditions of almost all counties in the country. 

Some of the unique characteristics of the new variant are that they produce up to 250 eggs in a year, starting laying at five months and its egg can weigh up to 60 grams.

It is aimed at boosting the poultry business in the lake region. 

The new Sh5m breeding and multiplication unit with 2, 000-bird capacity was constructed through joint funding from the European Union and the government under the Climate Smart Agricultural Productivity Project.

Together with the new 19,000-egg capacity hatchery, these facilities will supply 34,000 day-old chicks per month up from 3,000 currently.

The unit aims to fast-track multiplication of the chicken and increase availability of day-old chicks to farmers in Western Kenya, North and Central rift, Nyanza and Kisii counties, where the demand for white meet is on the increase.

Currently, the country’s annual production of day-old chicks stands at 600,000 against a national demand of over two million chicks per year.

The annual poultry meat production stands at 605, 000 metric tons and 1,716 million eggs valued at Sh10.3 billion are produced annually, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Kireger said the organisation has distributed 3.69 million chicks of improved indigenous chicken to farmers across the country in the last six years.

He said that indigenous chickens accounts for 78 per cent of all poultry in Kenya and are an integral part of the farming system in many households.

“Chickens are mainly owned by women, youth and landless farmers because they provide an income and are credited for their adaptability,” Kireger said. 

Kireger said productivity of indigenous breeds is constrained by the high costs of feed, diseases, low genetic potential and poor management practices, despite accounting for more than two-thirds of the chicken population.

Poultry is one of the flagship projects the county government of Kakamega is developing as an alternative to help farmers diversify from over-reliance on sugarcane farming.

The project that was started in 2014 has since distributed over 200, 000 chicks to farmers groups at half price across the county.

Under the programme, benefiting farmers grow the chicks and sell the mature chickens then use the money raised as seed capital to purchase others.

County director for livestock production Henry Odanga said that the county is currently giving groups 400 chicks each up from the initial 100.

Odanga said that the launching of a breeding and multiplication unit in Kakamega by Kalro will reduce the period farmers waited for chicks from Naivasha Non-Ruminant Institute. 

“Farmers had to wait for between three and four months for chicks from Naivasha but this will now change,” he said.

The county has also conceived another project to  multiply small stocks and will start with poultry this July.

The project dubbed Baraza na Ufugaji will deal with multiplication of domestic breeds of chicken (Kienyeji) and upgrading and multiplying of domestic goats and pigs.

Under the programme, the county government will distribute mature chickens to farmers, which they will rear and then pass the same number to other farmers after one year and continue with the remaining flock.

“Poultry is a good choice of enterprise because there is a lot of cultural attachment to chickens by communities in Western region. Everyone including the poor can keep chickens because they are not so demanding,” Odanga said.

“We are encouraging farmers in this region to take up this enterprise to increase their food and nutritional security and incomes,” Odanga added.

He said that chicken is also a first step in the process of acquiring larger livestock such as goats and cattle for resource-poor and the disadvantaged, especially women-headed households.

He said that the county is currently training farmers on best practices and disease control and building the capacity of agro-vets to be able to offer the right advice to farmers.

Odanga, however, said that demand has surpassed supply.

There are 3.2 million chickens in Western against a population of 1.8 million people. There were 31.8 million domestic birds in the country, according to the national census of 2019.

“The numbers may look big but they are still too low. On average it means that each person in Kakamega county owns less than two chickens,” he said.

The county government has set aside over Sh40 million for the purchase of chickens and vaccines for the project.

Odanga said that the county is constructing a poultry processing plant in Lugari sub-county to expand the products from chickens through value addition with support from development partners. 

The plant was built at a cost of Sh20 million. “What is remaining is fixing the water issues and painting and we’ll be good to go,” he said.

The county is also constructing a hatchery in Butere sub-county which will be run by the community to ensure day-old chicks are readily available to farmers. 

The project is supported by Danica and the EU through Medium Enterprise Support Programme.

“What we will do as a county is to assist farmers to access quality eggs then hatch and sell the chicks,” he said.