Day Old Chicks for Farmers affected by COVID-19
FAO Kenya working in collaboration with Kisumu County government supported 40 poultry farmers with improved day old kienyeji chicks. The farmers selected from Nyando and Kisumu west sub counties were each given 100 day-old chicks. The goal is to support households affected negatively by the COVID19 pandemic to improve their food and nutrition security.
The event
The event was attended by 40 farmers from Nyando and Kisumu West Sub counties. The handing over was presided over by Mr. Charles Kakuku, Director of Livestock Production Kisumu County. Also present were Kisumu County extension officers, representatives from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Mr. Kakuku was grateful to FAO for supporting the farmers to build resilience by enhancing the food and nutrition security following the negative effects COVID 19 pandemic. He implored the farmers to take good care of the chicks and work closely with extension officers to ensure maximum returns.
“Through this intervention, we are optimistic that the farmers will greatly benefit from this venture and will spread the message to other farmers. They will act as role models and that is our ultimate goal to improve nutrition and incomes for our small holder farmers. These will positively impact the farmers’ resilience to the effect of the pandemic.” Said Mr. Kakuku.
Mr. Paul Ojuka the Kisumu West farmers chairman, expressed his gratitude to FAO and the County government for the support and called on the farmers to play their role. “We are the models upon which other farmers are supposed to learn, I am sure the training has empowered us and are equal to the task.”
Identification and training
For a farmer to be given the chicks they needed to be residents of the Kisumu County and either located in urban or peri urban areas of Kisumu city. They must have been poultry farmers with a poultry house and a brooder already constructed. Priority was given to women and the youth.
The farmers were trained on chicken housing, brooder construction, management of day-old chicks, feeds and feeding, poultry diseases prevention and control and business skills.
The training involved practical demonstrations, illustrations; peer learning; discussion; question and answer and direct instruction. It was conducted by technical expertise from the county government of Kisumu.
How COVID19 affected food systems in the county
The onset of COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020 resulted in dramatic interruption of livelihoods due to Ministry of Health restrictions to contain the disease spread. This affected transportation of foods and farm inputs negatively affecting production and subsequently negatively affecting food security and nutrition. The County heavily relies on food imports from outside the county and country and these sources were affected by COVID19 pandemic. The closure of eateries and Kibuye food market as a strategic measure to minimize the spread of COVID19 disrupted the supply chain especially for fresh food producers and consumers. Fear as a result of the COVID19 spread limited the number of consumers and farmers accessing the markets. The impact was mostly in low-income urban households who rely on these open-air food markets. With the support from FAO under the Urban Food System Project, the county government of Kisumu identified promotion of poultry production as a value chain that could easily cushion these vulnerable households affected by COVID 19 pandemic. The poultry value chain requires little space and capital to start and takes a short time span to attain production.
Continued support
Another batch of 6,000-day-old chicks will be given to beneficiary farmers in Kisumu East and Central sub counties and additional trainings conducted to equip the farmers with relevant skills. This means that at the end of a total of 10,000-day-old chicks will be distributed to 100 farmers in Nyando, Kisumu West, Kisumu East and Kisumu Central sub counties. In addition, 400 bags of chick mash will also be distributed to all the targeted beneficiaries to support in feeding the birds for the first 8 weeks. Trainings will also be extended to poultry farmers who did not receive day old chicks as a means of fast tracking the adoption of improved Kienyeji chicken.
Additional capacity building will also be extended to other actors in poultry value chain like input suppliers, aggregators, traders, hotels and restaurants.
This project is funded by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and implemented by the Kisumu County through FAO support.