Six years after Steve Sande quit his job at Unga Limited to venture into poultry farming, he has no regrets.
His educational background in Food Science and Technology has played a big role in running his Kamsa poultry farm in Kisumu West subcounty.
“I resigned in 2015 and got into agribusiness starting with 500 birds. During this time, I attended several meetings on poultry farming and interacted with several entrepreneurs,” Sande told the Star during a visit to his farm.
Sande’s interest in poultry farming began in 2014 when he was still in formal employment. He started by raising kienyeji chickens for meat and eggs, then scaled up to egg production only.
“I first bought 20 chicks from neighbours and within three months, many had died. I did not give up, and I bought another 100 kienyeji chicks and continued scaling up to 300 and by 2015 when I quit, I had 500 birds,” he said.
After a few years, he realised that the demand for eggs was more than that of meat, so he shifted from kienyeji chicken to high breed broilers.
By 2016, Sande needed to expand his venture but did not have the resources, so he approached banks for loans and he was turned down by four.
At the time, he said, banks were shying away from giving out loans to any farming venture, terming it risky, but this has since changed.
“But through my interaction with other agribusiness entrepreneurs, I learnt about a call for proposals for a grant by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and I applied for the grant in 2018," he said.
"During that time, I had shifted from kienyeji to hybrid layers and had about 2,000 layers. I had depleted all my initial resources and I needed additional capital to scale up.”
Sande applied and went through a vigorous process and in December 2019, he received Sh3.5 million grant from GAIN. He invested the money towards the construction of the deep litter system chicken house and buying the structures and equipment.
He said the GAIN programme supports technical assistance and being in the food industry, there is a need for quality assurance to standardise the product for the market.
Leah Kaguara, GAIN country director, said they have been working with small and medium entrepreneurs in the Marketplace for Nutritious Foods project and now they want to target the vendors.
“This is because most SMEs don’t sell their produce directly to the market, but they pass it on to somebody else and that person is the vendor. Most SMEs pass it on to the vendors in the market, kiosks and in the streets and this is the person we want to target in our next stage,” she said.
Kaguara said GAIN Kenya is looking at strengthening the supply chain with the aim of reaching and making an impact at the bottom of the pyramid.
She said they are working in partnership with the national and county governments and other like-minded civil society groups to strengthen the supply of nutritious food.
Today, Sande has 5,000 birds on an eighth of an acre. He produces eggs for the local market using the deep litter system.
“Many farmers prefer the free-range method, but it is one of the most ineffective systems for someone who wants to produce eggs in large volumes," he said.
The trained food technologist sells 80 per cent of his eggs in the area while the rest is sold in Kisumu town. He sells to the retail shops that then sell to the consumer and this ensures that the eggs are affordable.
Sande is currently producing 150,000 trays daily. He spends about Sh210 to produce a tray of eggs and then sells it at Sh280 at the farm gate and the same tray retails at Sh300.
He said 60-70 per cent of the eggs consumed in Kenya are imported and Sande is planning to increase production to 20,000 in the next two to three years and 100,000 birds in the next five years.
“Feeds take up the biggest chunk of production, which is 70 percent of the production cost. So I plan to start making my own chicken feed so I can maximize on my profit,” he said.
He advised farmers or anyone interested in venturing into poultry farming to undertake research first, invest in good housing structure for the birds and then get quality chicks to ensure maximum returns.
