Steve Sande Kamwa is the owner of Kamsa Poultry Farm located in Ololo, Kisumu County. His story began in 2013 when the farmer noted an uprisal demand for eggs.
He automatically saw an opportunity for profitability. At that time, an egg would retail at Sh. 20.
“There was a shortage of eggs at that time. The price of eggs rose to Sh. 20 each. I saw an opportunity,” he recalled.
With a starting capital of Sh. 70,000, Sande set up his business. He constructed a 15ft by 7ft battery cage to house his flock. He bought chicks at Sh. 100 each.
He acquired 100 chicks from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Initially, he practised poultry farming as a side hustle. The farm has grown into a profitable full-time business a decade later.
In 2015, Sande managed to keep 1200 layers within the battery cage system. Additionally, he had 500 KARI Kienyeji birds kept under the deep litter system.
But Sande’s accomplishments and those to come for the foreseeable future had to come at a price. The Food Science and Technology graduate had to leave his job at Unga Limited and focus on the poultry venture.
“I resigned in 2015 and got into agribusiness…During this time, I attended several meetings on poultry farming and interacted with several entrepreneurs,” Sande stated in a past interview.
Sande recalled his initial setback when he tried to venture into the poultry farming business. During his time while in employment, he conceptualized his ideal poultry farming business.
“I first bought 20 chicks from neighbours, and within three months, many had died. I did not give up. I bought another Kienyeji chick and continued scaling up to 300. By 2015 when I quit (employment), I had 500 birds,” he said.
As his poultry business began to gain traction and soared to new heights, Sande decided to invest further in expansion. He placed an online order to import a battery cage system from China.
The cage had a capacity of 300 birds, a significant investment that cost him Sh. 150,000.
“I placed an order online, it was shipped, and I picked the cages from Nairobi. All my layers are now in deep litter after I added more cages,” he further explained.
Despite the initial focus to focus on egg and meat production, Sande noticed that the egg business performed better and had higher demand.
He decided to switch from Kienyeji chickens to high-breed broilers to meet the growing demand. This transition proved to be a challenging expedition for him.
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He would approach financial institutions for loans. They would often turn him down due to the perceived nature and magnitude of risks associated with poultry farming.
“But through my interaction with other agribusiness entrepreneurs, I learned about a call for proposals for a grant by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). I applied for the grant in 2018,” Sande explained.
At this crucial point in his poultry journey, Sande had transitioned to keeping hybrid layers and had around 2,000 birds. To support expansion, GAIN granted Sande a loan of 3.5 million. He immediately injected the funds into his farm.
Blessed with financial resources, Sande set up a deep litter system to accommodate his layers in addition to the battery cage system. He also invested in several farm machinery to optimize his farm operations.
Steve Sande notes that vaccination is crucial in his project, as it keeps numerous diseases that could affect his flock at bay.
“I haven’t had any disease problem since I embraced the cage system.”
He sells a majority of his eggs (around 80%) at his farms local area. The rest he takes to Kisumu City. He sells the meat to eateries in Kisumu when they are about 2kgs.
“Poultry business needs steady capital flow, the reason I sell to the eateries is because they pay immediately. Big hotels tend to take long in making payments,” says the 40 year old farmer.
A nice and encourancing story on a poultry venture and how profitable and sustainable is.