YAP Proposal #34: “Integrated Chicken, Fish and Horticulture Farming” (Geoffrey Karani Kamundi, Kenya)

Can we integrate poultry and fish farming and make maximum utilization of available resources? Can we use what others consider wastes as actually very important consumable food substances? How do we ensure that what people learn in classes is being practiced on the ground to boost productivity? If all these questions can be answered, our communities will perform better.

My name is Geoffrey Karani, a passionate Agriculturalist, Software and Web developer from Kenya. I am 27 years, graduated a B.Sc. Information Sciences from Moi University, Kenya. Currently I am working with Software Technologies as a software Developer.

I am so passionate about agriculture. I have great dreams in the field of agriculture, and hope to achieve them all with time. My dreams start from educating people on better utilization of agricultural resources to increase overall productivity, to implementation of agricultural practices to demonstrate better farming practices.

Due to the high rate of unemployment in Kenya, Software Developers themselves are poorly paid. Nevertheless, with my little savings, I have managed to construct a poultry farm that can hold up to 700 heads. I also stocked the structure with 100 chicks that are now 3 months old. The lithe money I save every month now goes into buying food for the chicks.

My plan is to first, build a bigger structure that can accommodate 5,000 heads, and second, increase the number from 100 to 5,000 heads. Of these, I wish to have 1,500 kept for meat and the remaining 3,500 for eggs production. This will significantly better the market prices, which are now very high due to low supply. The local community will also have easy access to eggs at better prices. The project will also create job opportunities in the village. The success of this project starts the day the numbers of the chicken starts rising significantly.

Additionally, I mentioned that I wish to integrate poultry with fish. The droppings from poultry will be dropped in the fish ponds. This, by itself, is food for the fish. Additionally, when the droppings go to the base of the fish pond, they produce nitrates that are very good at plankton formation. Planktons, as we all know, is food for the fish.

I also mentioned that I will integrate poultry, fish and horticulture. Maybe you are wondering why! I will tell you. Do you remember that the water in the fish ponds is very rich in nitrates? I will set-up a tank and pump this water in it. This water will be used to water the horticultural farm. This way, I will reduce the cost of buying fertilizers.

My motivation is derived from the fact that many people will learn new ways of saving, and at the same time have better results from their agricultural practices.

The $500 grant is not sufficient to do all this, but definitely will be sufficient to give it a humongous jump towards achievement. Here is what I intent to do with the grant.

I will first expand the structure to hold 2,500 heads, which will be expanded later to accommodate the targeted 5000 heads. This will cost $1250. Second, I will buy 1,600 chicks at a cost of $2400. Feeding and vaccination cost until the project can sustain itself will cost $1350.

Blogpost and picture submitted by Geoffrey Karani Kamundi (Kenya) – geoffrey.kamundi(at)gmail.com

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