Climate-Smart Poultry Farming Brings Prosperity to Kenya’s Smallholders.

Mercy Wairimu poultry farmer from Nakuru County in Kenya used to have a few small indigenous chickens here and there, running around in her compound but then the Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project (KAPAP) came,they expanded her business and now she has 1000 birds. The KAPAP is a Government of Kenya initiative supported by the World Bank whose aim is to improve agricultural productivity and the incomes of smallholders. It does so through a range of activities, including supporting research and developing agriculture value chains. Farmers have benefited from KAPAP’s provision of new technologies, improved market access and climate-smart agriculture approaches especially in dairy farming, potato and pea cropping, apiculture and poultry rearing, to name just a few. Some of the beneficiaries have even expanded their operations to practice more than one type of farming. Agriculture means jobs in Kenya. After all, more than 75% of Kenyans make a living in agriculture, hence supporting farmers to earn good incomes and build a sustainable, climate-smart food system is vital to driving economic growth and boosting shared prosperity in Kenya. In Nakuru County, KAPAP works with a farmers’ co-operative society to improve the poultry value chain. Mercy is one of the society’s two thousand plus members who has benefited from training on sustainable poultry: rearing techniques; the provision of vaccines, and the introduction to the improved ‘Kroiller’ chickens. The indigenous chickens she used to raise were smaller, and took between six months to one year to breed. The new, improved Kroiller chickens are fully grown after four and a half months, weigh between four to six kilograms once fully-grown, and they start breeding in less than six months. According to Mercy, the improved chickens also lay larger eggs almost every day. Vaccinations—against devastating diseases like Newcastle—also help guarantee that more chicks survive, and become fully grown. The new chickens are quite resilient, that according to Mercy, every so often, if she hatches 200 chicks, 195 of them become fully grown. Mercy’s poultry farm is also climate-smart and makes sustainable use of resources. Poultry is recognized for being among the "greenest" meats, using up less resources and emitting less greenhouse gases than larger livestock. Mercy’s chickens eat kale grown on her farm, and are less reliant on store-bought feed that’s produced elsewhere and carries a larger environmental footprint. She also uses bird droppings as fertilizer on her crops, and practices agroforestry, growing bananas and fruit trees on her poultry farm. KAPAP has helped poultry farmers become better entrepreneurs by advising them on how to grow their brand and connecting them to bigger markets. Mercy says that that they used to sell their chickens and eggs to friends and neighbors, but KAPAP introduced them to bigger markets. “Now we sell our eggs in supermarkets. They also taught us about advertising and marketing,” Mercy says. Through their co-op, the Nakuru poultry farmers can command better prices for their eggs and shelf space in Nakumatt supermarket and other popular grocery stores. They can also purchase inputs, such as vaccines and vitamins, at higher volumes and for a lower price. The success she has recorded as a farmer and entrepreneur, has moved her family towards greater prosperity over the years. She is a mother of three and she says that she does not have any other income, but she relies on farming. One of the children is a 4th year at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology while the other is in boarding school. She has been able to educate her children through poultry business.more

Agritech innovations for food security and safety.

The smart pot has sensors that detect the status of a plant, like whether it’s receiving enough water and sunlight, or if soil conditions are optimum. Even though Greenopia is catering to smaller segment, its influence on the plant cultivation is interesting. 

 Food packaging and transport is an important part of the food chain,food must be delivered fresh and valuable. The majority of food waste that arises in the value chain is simply because of lack of adequate preservation and packaging technique to ensure the food is delivered fresh. 

 The rural farmers and small holder farmers that produce majority of food shipped out lack all these innovations and end up losing money due to waste as a result of spoilage of food.The innovations in this area must be cheap ,readily available and simple and easy to operate. 

 In California ,purfresh is addressing some of the challenges ; purfresh reduce decay, reduce pathogens, control ripening, and enhance food safety all at once .

Purfresh doesn’t use any chemicals to solve these challenges rather they make use of the power of ozone. Ozone (O3) oxidizes decay causing & pathogenic microbial that results in reducing decay and it also removes Ethylene resulting in controlling the ripening of fruits.

The mystery of the camel milk.

In India camel milk is used therapeutically against dropsy, Jaundice, problems of the spleen, tuberculosis, asthma, anaemia, and piles (Rao et al., 1970). The “chal” and other lung ailments (Gast et al., 1963) has proven beneficial in the treatment of tuberculosis (Akundov et al., 1972). A clinic has been established in which milk is used for treatment (Urazakov and Bainazarov, 1974). Patients with chronic hepatitis had improved liver function after being treated with camel milk (Sharmanov et al., 1978). In fact, camel milk was as effective as ass milk and superior to treatment with only medication or a diet consisting of cow milk proteins. The camel milk works as a laxative on people unaccustomed to drinking this milk (Rao et al., 1970). Apparently stomach upsets only occur when the milk is drunk while still warm. When it is cool, no ill effects have been noted (Gast et al., 1969). The milk also apparently has slimming properties (Yasin and Wahid, 1957). Camel milk is given to the sick, the elderly and the very young because of the belief that it is not only healthier, but works especially well in bone formation (Gast et al., 1969). The belief among the Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula, is that any internal disease can be cured by drinking camel milk. The milk is said to be of such a strength, and to have such health-giving properties, that all the bacteria are driven from the body. This said to be true only for camels that eat certain shrubs and bushes. The shrubs and bushes are, themselves, used in the preparation of medicines. However, camels which eat straw are said to lose this ability. In Ethiopia camel milk is considered as having aphrodisiac powers (Rao et al., 1970). In Somalia, among the pastoral tribes, it is believed that milk drunk on the night when the camels first drink water, following a long period of thirst, has magical powers (Mares, 1954). “He who drinks milk on this night from a thirst-quenched camel will lose the thorns that have penetrated his feet, even from childhood”. In the Sahara there is a superstition that when camel milk is given to a certain guest, only the milk of one particular camel is given to him. (Gast et al., 1969). Therefore, if the guest casts an evil eye on the herd, only the camel, whose milk he has drunk, will be affected and will stop lactating. more

Happy Cows Help Save the Planet.

Climate-smart agriculture can produce more food on less land, and with a minimal environmental footprint. An example of this is the Coopeagri Agroforestry project in Costa Rica featured in this video. The project works with Costa Rica's national forestry financing fund (FONAFIFO) and with farmers to support low-carbon agriculture in symbiosis with forestry. This, in turn, generates carbon credits that are sold to the BioCarbon Fund, creating a revenue stream to help make the project sustainable.

Therapeutic milk for Diabetes in humans.

A research currently ongoing in India has shown the benefits of raising Indian cows and using the milk to treat diabetes. Dr. Sai Butcha Rao, a research associate at International Livestock Research Institute, ICRISAT, Patancheru, is throwing more light on the mechanism. B.V.S.R. Krisham Raju, who took voluntary retirement as a General Manager of power system-equipment company and started an animal farm at Mubarakpur near Sangareddy, is one among them. He acquired a Gir cow from Gujarat. Feed of Gir cow is being formulated with herbal plants, concentrates and roughages and fed to the animal. He is suffering from diabetes for the last ten years and one such volunteer. Three more volunteers from different places, including one from Sangareddy town are using the ‘health value added’ Gir cow milk as part of experiment. According to Dr. Sai, the feedback from the volunteers is encouraging and other problems associated with diabetes like tooth ache and frequent infections are getting minimised. One of his line of research is on clinical properties of milk of Indian cattle breeds. He fed the animal with specially formulated feed and the milk obtained from such cow is reported to have clinical properties to cure diabetes.He selected four volunteers for this purpose and the initial medical tests furnished encouraging results. Dr. Sai Butcha Rao, the approach is health is the value addition in the experiment. The doctor is changing the diet formulation of the animal and adding probiotics and herbal plants.The milk collected from the animal after consuming the feed will have certain medicinal properties. The experiment is being conducted assuming that this will stimulate the pancreatic duct resulting in the production of insulin. Dr. Sai said that from Vedic times Indian cattle breeds played important role in Indian culture and part of life. An Indian cow is eco friendly and plays important role in sustainable development of socio-economic and community health. Not only Gir, but also other Indian cattle breeds (Bos indicus, humped) are also suitable for production of therapeutic milk for diabetes in humans. more

Keyhole gardens for climate smart agriculture.

Climate smart agriculture is using less to get more,that is reduced space for planting but higher productivity by planting more than a crop thus promoting biodiversity. This is the story of the keyhole gardens which provides better nutrition and livelihoods. A keyhole garden is a round raised garden, supported with stones. Keyhole gardens are built in places where it is difficult to build normal gardens such as rocky areas, shallow arid/or compacted soils, etc, near the entrance of dwellings to facilitate their watering with household waste water. Keyhole gardens are made with low-cost locally available materials,the production of a keyhole garden can be enough to feed a family of 8 persons and such gardens can produce food all year round even under harsh temperatures and can support the production of at least 5 varieties of vegetables at a time - thus supporting dietary diversity. The keyhole gardens require less labor thus its ideal for elderly, children or sick persons, and requires less water and no costly fertilizers or pesticides. They act like an organic recycling tank, using your food and garden waste as fuel to grow vegetables! Crop rotation and growing of insect-repellent plants are important to balance nutrient demands, fight insects and plant diseases, and deter weeds. When a project introduced keyhole gardens in Lesotho, neighboring villages outside the project intervention area were reproducing keyhole gardens on their own initiative, clearly indicating the success of the intervention and its potential sustainability. This technology gives a detailed step-by-step description of the building process of a keyhole garden. The keyhole garden is built using the following; 1)Soil, compost 2) Strong string 3) Straw or something similar 4) Worms 5) Well rotted manure and wood ash 6)large stones, bricks or logs 7)Scrap metal (old cans, etc.) and 8) Several sticks or 1.5meters canes The garden is built as follows ;find a space near your house that’s about 3m2 and make sure that there is enough sunlight and it is located closely to access to water. 2) Clear the space of weeds and dig it over. continue

Agribusiness: How to turn poultry waste to electricity.

The role of the chicken in nation development cannot be over emphasized,from food to fashion to power generation and employment facilitation,the role in solving power crisis is huge and we need to start tapping into this fast. There has been recent reports about drops in power generation due to inadequate gas-to-power for the mostly gas-based power plants,this can be solved easily with proper harnessing of the power locked in chicken. 

The number of chickens in the country can help solve this power crisis by the using their waste to generate electricity. This is another aspect of climate smart agriculture,the waste that usually end up in landfills destroying the environment and increasing emissions can actually be converted to power which is clean energy. This is an analysis for a state,imagine this replicated in other states especially from local government levels where waste to wealth initiatives are encouraged. 

 The waste generated not only smells but also is a breeding area for flies which further increase spread of diseases. The problem of waste disposal is one that can be turned to a new source of income by channeling the waste to a digester to produce heat,electricity and fertilizer. 

 Biogas uses anaerobic digestion to breakdown poultry litter to methane,carbon dioxide and other gases which can easily be converted to light and energy.

The gas is lighter than air ,will be pipped to the top of the tank to a biogas cooking stove or light. The advantages of the biogas plants are 

1) Improved manure composition and less odor 

2)Higher availability of nutrients thus higher crop yields 

 3)No acidification of the soil as digestate has a pH of 8.

 4) Reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. 

5) Generation of renewable energy; green power. 6) Reduced overhead cost. Every kg of organic matter yields 0.5m3 of biogas.

 1000kg of chicken litter yields 200m3 of biogas. 

 1m3 of biogas = 2.1 KW electricity and 2.5 KW heat.

 The poultry value chain can not only provide food,cloth accessories,jobs but it can also generate electricity that will power more farms,industries and homes .

 The biogas plant will also ensure a cleaner environment.Join the biogas project to change our #environment #economy #lives .