Secretary quit to rear kienyeji chickens, she's not looking back

She quit in 2020 and went into rearing indigenous chickens, or kienyeji. Jamina has no regrets.

As an employee she was paid Sh12,000. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, she decided she wasn't going back to the office.

Jamina makes at least Sh15,000 from the sale of 10 cockerels at Sh1,500 each.

“This is more than what I was earning in one month. Being in the venture has also helped me stay close to my children and family because I am always at home,” the mother of two said. 

Many poultry farmers have in the last two years abandoned the venture or cut down operations due to the high cost of animal feeds.

But Jamina soldiers on at her farm in Kwa-Kathoka village in Makueni.

She told the Star during a visit at her farm that she started with 50 improved kienyeji chicks.

“By December 2020, I had sold 10 of them at Sh300 each. The remaining 40, I sold when they were mature at Sh800 each. After selling the first lot, I bought another lot of 100 chicks. Currently I have 200 improved kienyeji chickens and another 100 one-and-half months old layers chicks,” she said.

She sells a tray of kienyeji eggs at Sh600, a mature cockerel at Sh1,500 and a hen at Sh800.

Jamina plans to improve her chicken infrastructure to add another 100 chicks to accommodate 200.

To supplement improved kienyeji feed, she mixes maize, cowpeas, green grams to feed her chickens.

She said some of the challenges she faces include diseases and the high cost of feed but these have not deterred her.

The chicken rearing has also helped in improving her farm production because she uses manure from the birds, which saves money from buying fertiliser.

“When I was not using manure, my yields were low and I could harvest about five 90kg bags of maize but with manure from the chickens venture, I am able to get about nine bags from the one acre,” said Musyoka.

“I want to be a big poultry farmer in Makueni and to do this, I am planning to expand the business,” she said.

Musyoka is a beneficiary of the USAID funded Feed the Future-Kenya Crops Dairy Market System (KCDMS) project.  

Jane Biashara, market systems lead in the KCDMS project in the Eastern region, said the five-year project started in 2018 till November in 2022.

However, the project was extended for another eight months due to drought and the Ukraine war, which heavily impacted the agriculture sector.

The Eastern region covers Makueni, Taita Taveta and Kitui counties.

She said USAID, through the Ukraine supplementary budget, gave KCDMS the extension which is almost winding up.

Biashara said the extension was informed by the need to address three key areas including micro-economic shocks created by the Ukraine war and drought to the poor.

“It was also coming to look at mitigation on fertiliser issues because prices had gone up to almost Sh6,000 per bag. Though the government was supporting farmers through the subsidised fertiliser, there was also a need to support those in the ASALs. The project was also coming in to look at how to strengthen agricultural businesses so that they become resilient,” she said.  

In the first component against cushioning farmers against micro-economic shocks, the project looked into helping smallholder farmers have an income despite the prevailing drought.

“One way was through the poultry value chain that can be done by many farmers. The project had a discounted offer. Through the USAID support under the KCDMS, the project sought to ensure that even the last mile is able to keep poultry,” Biashara said.

She explained that the project was serving farmers through grantees.

“We anchor our services through businesses to ensure that even when the project ends, there is sustainability. So in the Eastern region, we had five main grantees working on providing quality chicks, feeds and off taking. The latter was aimed at addressing the challenge of market access,” she said.