Homa Bay youth graduates spark green poultry revolution

(L) Kind Heart Organisation Kenya Executive Director Mark Nyasoro hands over two-week-old chicks to members of the Future Seed Self Help Group at Kotieno village in Homa Bay County recently. [James Omoro, Standard]

A group of young farmers in western Kenya has adopted automated solar-powered brooders to kick-start their poultry enterprise, ditching charcoal.

In doing so, they have moved away from a fuel source that was not only draining their meagre profits but also acting as a major environmental pollutant.

The Future Seed Self Help Group, based at Kotieno village within the Rachuonyo South Sub- County of Homa Bay County, is a testament to the harsh economic realities facing rural youth.

The group, comprising entirely unemployed university graduates, originally turned to agriculture to craft their own livelihoods.

Initially, they relied on grid electricity to keep their newly hatched chicks warm. However, high national utility tariffs and unpredictable power surges quickly proved too expensive for their razor-thin margins.

Driven to desperation, the young entrepreneurs resorted to utilising traditional charcoal jikos (stoves). Because buying commercial fuel threatened to bankrupt their budding enterprise, the graduates began cutting local timber to produce their own charcoal.

Yet, even this gruelling, self-made alternative quickly became logistically and financially unsustainable.

In Kenya, the poultry sector is a lucrative but fiercely competitive agribusiness.

Valued at approximately Sh120 billion nationally, the industry is on a steep growth trajectory driven by rising urban demand for lean protein.

Yet, smallholders face massive bottlenecks. Agricultural data indicates that animal feed and heating inputs command up to 70 per cent of total running costs for small-scale poultry installations.

For the Future Seed Self Help Group, burning charcoal round-the-clock was viewed as a necessary evil to maintain the stable, high ambient heat that fragile chicks require during their first few weeks of life.

However, the continuous use of charcoal jikos introduced devastating operational setbacks. The primary challenge plaguing their venture was an unacceptably high chick mortality rate.

Brian Ochieng, one of the co-founders of the self-help group, recalled the heartbreak of walking into the brooding structure only to find dozens of lifeless birds.

On average, the group would lose more than 70 chicks per production cycle.

“We have been rearing chicks using electricity and charcoal as sources of energy for keeping our chicks warm,” Ochieng explained.

“However, we have been suffering serious setbacks due to the death of our chicks. Out of every batch of 250 chicks, only 180 or even fewer could survive.”

This represented a staggering 28 per cent mortality rate. According to standard veterinary benchmarks, recommended flock mortality during the critical brooding phase should strictly remain below five per cent.

The fluctuating, unmonitored heat from the charcoal stoves—which would often burn too hot or freeze out in the dead of night—was systematically decimating their flock.

But today, the youth have completely transformed their fortunes by transitioning from dirty biomass to a modern solar-powered brooder.

They acquired the advanced green technology free of charge from the Kind Heart Organisation Kenya, a non-governmental organisation working to empower rural communities.

The solar system has been seamlessly installed in their dedicated brooder house, where chicks are carefully raised to six weeks of age.

Unlike the erratic heat of a charcoal stove, the solar brooder features smart electronic components that automatically regulate environmental temperatures.

This critical technical automation has unlocked immense operational efficiencies for the young farmers.

“Previously, we used to wake up multiple times at night to manually check the temperature in the brooder house when we were using electricity or charcoal,” Ochieng said.

“But this solar-powered brooder is now making our work so much easier because it regulates temperatures automatically.”

Eunice Mboya, another group member, emphasised that the technology will directly shield them from the massive utility overheads that previously devoured their earnings.

“The brooder will significantly cushion us from expenses on electricity and charcoal,” Mboya noted. “Like any other business, reduced operational expenses immediately increase the profit margin.”

Beyond the purely financial incentives, the university graduates are proud to be driving climate-smart agriculture in a region highly vulnerable to climate shifts.

Localised deforestation has long been an environmental crisis in Homa Bay County. “We no longer cut down trees to make charcoal for brooding our chicks,” Ochieng added.

“This active conservation helps to reduce local environmental degradation, which fuels broader climate change.”

Livestock experts have lauded the technological intervention. Charles Oduor, the Homa Bay County director in charge of veterinary services, explained that artificial brooding is vital for modern commercial poultry production because a single hen cannot successfully foster a large volume of day-old chicks.

“A brooder modifies the micro-environment for baby chicks so that it perfectly mimics the steady warmth of their mother,” Oduor stated.

“It is an exceptional piece of equipment for raising healthy, high-yield poultry. Furthermore, it keeps the chicks in a safe, closed environment where they do not waste vital metabolic energy wandering around looking for food, which greatly accelerates their physical development.”

To ensure the long-term economic sustainability of the enterprise, Kind Heart Organisation Kenya did not just stop at providing technology.

Supported entirely by international donors from Germany, the organisation also donated 400 two-week-old chicks to the group, alongside a comprehensive one-year supply of high-quality feeds, automated feeders, and water drinkers.

This generous package was delivered immediately after the organisation constructed a modern, biosecure poultry house for the graduates.

Mark Nyasoro, the executive director of Kind Heart Organisation Kenya, noted that their ultimate goal is sustainable employment creation among the youth and marginalised demographics.

“Our main aim is to empower the community by opening practical avenues for generating direct income,” Nyasoro stated.

The organisation’s long-term vision involves partnering with the Homa Bay County Department of Agriculture and Livestock Production to scale these smallholder groups into a formal, highly organised co-operative society. This planned co-operative will eventually manage its own localised chicken rearing, commercial feed formulation, and independent egg hatcheries, transforming Homa Bay from a net importer of poultry into a regional powerhouse.