YAP proposal #260: A Punch to Climate Change Challenges (Blessing S Chilonga, Zambia)

My name is Blessing S Chilonga, 23, from Lusaka Zambia. I grew up in Chilonga Village Mumbwa District west of Lusaka with my parents who worked and are still working as peasant farmers. They sent me to high school and later College in the same capacity. I am currently working as a travel consultant for Yawen Travel.

I will be working with Lweendo Sibindi, a childhood friend, who is now a specialist in Agribusiness. He is currently working with Export Trading Company (ETG) Zambia. He holds a Diploma in Agribusiness from the Cooperative College in Lusaka Zambia.

I have the desire to help my family and friends, who are still in the village, and also sponsor myself to college. I anticipate enrolling in an Agribusiness or Animal Husbandry programme at Cooperative College in January 2017.

I see it fit and worthy for me to write this project in applying for a grant from the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) in partnership with Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Our project is about empowering youths in the rural areas. This project is wholly centred on Free Range Chicken rearing. We shall organize farmers in the village to rear chickens in their homes. After they have joined this project, they will be given free chemicals, medicines and other items, which come along with this nature of business. They shall also be trained on how to run a successive poultry business.

After the first production cycle, farmers will be regulated on how many chickens they will be allowed to keep in their poultries depending on their production records. This means after every production cycle, famers will be given a specific number of hens they will be allowed to keep for production controls.

Farmers who fail to manage the poultry will be deregistered from the project. Some of the failures which will be considered in this selection are: failure to keep 70% of the chickens in the poultry alive, failure to realize diseases affecting the chickens at the right time, failure to feed the chicken well, and failure to attend successive training sessions and workshops. These areas will be observed in the period of the first two production cycles.

Marketing and sales duties will be done at the cost of the managing body of the project and not the farmers themselves.

A transparent method of sales will be used where each and every farmer will have his or her own receipt book of the chicken sales.

The net profit in the particular poultry of a farmer will determine the exact amount the farmers will benefit from the project. Twenty per cent of the net profits from the sales of the chicken will be paid to the farmer in the first two production cycles of the project. The other 80% will remain in business and be available for any demand that may rise.

This is the same money which will be required for: market research, medicines, chemicals, poultry building, legal purposes, feed, transportations, security, water, and many more requirements needed for the poultry business to survive as we grow.

After the successful sale of a second production cycle, a contract of employment will be signed with farmers to give them a stable amount of money they will benefit from the project.

Should a farmer go over 80% in producing the chickens ready for market, they shall get a commission of 50% in total sales of the residual number of chickens after deducting the needed 80%. This means, should the farmer fail to survive 80% of chickens, they will not get any commission.

Many people in rural areas suffer the challenges of how to get funds and help from willing individuals on management and entrepreneurship trainings.

It is also not easy for them to survive hunger with the records of climate change in Zambia as outlined by Tiozambia news site under the article titled ‘Impacts of climate change on agriculture in Zambia’ http://www.tiozambia.com/impacts-of-climate-change-on-agriculture-in-zambia/.

Getting this project unto their doorstep becomes a relief from their long suffering. Youths in the rural areas will benefit by getting formal employment and thereafter empower themselves for other possible projects. It is also in my benefit in finding a way I can sponsor myself in college for a period of three years.

Considering how much this project would cost to start in building a poultry house which can accommodate at list five hundred chickens, the chicken wire and other required items, only two separate farmers are going to be considered in the first production cycle. These farmers are going to be supported with all needs required.

To cover the USD 5,000 opportunity given, this project will start with two farmers each allocated with USD 2,500. In the second production cycle the project is likely to grow by 50%.

The demand for funds will be in two phases as tabulated here:

Building of poultry house and buying of 50 hens and cocks per farmer costing about USD 700. From this stage to the next is about two months.

Feed and medicine expenses for the 50 hens will come from this USD 700.

After laying of eggs and hatching, feed for at least 500 hundred chicks per farmer will be needed to feed them from this stage until they are ready for market, costing about USD 1,800 for 1,000 chickens in a period of about 5 months.

The successful sale of the 1,000 chickens translates; a gross sale of USD 5,000 going as per the local market price. This gives over 75% growth of the project in a period of about seven months.

The research on how to run and what are the mandatory items needed for a poultry business is done already with over 80% accuracy on hypothesis.

Forty per cent of hens have been bought already with our personal funding and USD 150 is reserved for feed should the project fail to get funded by GFAR and CGIAR.

This project is going to run under the company name ‘Shachi Entrepreneurs’ which is my company registered with Patents and Company Registrations Agency (PACRA) for this purpose in 2015.

As you were reading through this project, if it was suitable and fit for implementation, it is all in your hands for adoption with all the authority given to you from me. This is done in a vision of seeing young people in the rural areas get empowered in one way or the other as we support the youths which is a seed for the future generation with vibrant ideas in every sector of the society.

 

Blogpost and picture submitted by Blessing S Chilonga (Zambia): Blessingshamutukuc[at]gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.

 

This post is published as proposal #260 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

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