Compelled by high cost of commercial feed and low egg production, a group of farmers-turned-entrepreneurs began making nutritious chicken feed with locally available ingredients that cut input costs drastically, significantly increased egg production of Kuroiler poultry and subsequently, their profits.

Figure: Kuroiler chicken at Zaone Poultry Company Photo: Ken Gunsalu

Zaone Poultry Company in Thyolo and Chimtengo Youth Poultry company in Chiradzulu are two Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) established under the EU funded CLIM² project in Malawi. In 2019, the project introduced to them Kuroiler chickens, a dual-purpose breed originally bred in India that was introduced in Malawi from Tanzania. This hybrid chicken is known to outperform local chicken breeds under free range, semi-intensive and intensive management systems.

“There is a huge demand for eggs and poultry meat. However, a large gap exists between demand and supply of affordable poultry products. This presented us an opportunity to tap,” Dorica Jailosi, the Chairperson of Zaone Poultry Company, said while explaining the rationale for taking to Kuroiler chicken.

Accounting for nearly 60 to 70% of input costs, chicken feed is an important aspect of profitability in the poultry business.

“Most people in our community did not believe that we would manage raising Kuroiler chickens considering high cost of commercial feeds,” narrates Monica Mapemba, Chairperson of Chimtengo Youth Poultry Company.

Months after they began, the companies’ members began noticing a drop in egg production of Kuroiler birds. They suspected the expensive commercial feed they were giving the birds and realized that unlocking the profit potential of the prized chicken variety they had was only possible if the feed became cheaper without impacting nutrition. It was clear that the farmers had to prepare their own feed.

CLIM² began building the capacity of these farmers to prepare their own scientifically-formulated feeds. The efforts to develop local feed have been so successful that the farmers no longer buy commercial feed. Instead, they are able to locally source all ingredients, including minerals, to prepare feed. The feed is made of maize, maize bran, soybean, pigeon peas, sorghum, salt, microbial crude protein (MCP), metabolizable energy (ME) and lime. Most ingredients are bought soon after harvest when farmers sell their fresh produce and prices are low.

“Milling the feed stuff was easy with the hammer mills the CLIM² project provided,” added Ms Mapemba. Buying the feed when prices are low, low transport and labor cost for processing feed stuff made the feed much cheaper than commercial feed.

See: https://www.icrisat.org/a-tale-of-chicken-and-egg-malawi-farmers-reduce-poultry-feed-cost-by-80-increase-egg-production-by-200-through-improved-feed/