At least 19 poultry farming groups in Kirinyaga County have benefitted from a county project seeking to promote agriculture in the region.

Through the initiative, 473 community-based organizations were funded to undertake agricultural projects such as poultry keeping, pig rearing, beekeeping, tomato and avocado farming, and fish and dairy farming.

According to the Standard, the 19 poultry farming groups earned Sh1 million after selling over 10,000 chicks they had hatched in February this year.

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The successful hatching was backed by egg incubators donated by the Kirinyaga county government, which the farmers used to hatch chicks and supply them to farmers across the county.

The farmers received 19 incubators and power backup generators from the Anne Waiguru-led administration in the first phase of the project. Each one of the machines can hatch at least 1,050 chicks.

“We used to take a lot of time to hatch enough chicks to distribute because we only relied on layers to produce chicks. As a group, we had no financial capacity to buy the incubators, but the county government helped us.

We are now reaping the fruits of this investment,” said Benard Njeru, an official of the Trailblazers Youth group from Baragwi ward.

The high earnings were at the same time backed by the  increased number of chicken farmers and growing demand for white meat within and outside Kirinyaga county

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Muki Vision from Mutira ward, Decent Haso from Thiba ward, and Kandongu Mukathi from Mutithi ward are leading the egg-hatching venture.

The groups had hatched 2,056, 1,640, and 1,365 chicks, respectively, as of February this year. Members said the incubators project has opened new revenue streams for their families. 

“This project has economically empowered residents to diversify their agricultural activities and reduce over-reliance on traditional cash crops whose prices are unreliable,” Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru said.