Meet Julius from Lairangi village, Kianjai Ward in Tigania West, Meru County a member of Tumaini Self Help group feeding his indigenous poultry at home.
Julius who is 45 years of age has been a member of the group for a period of 6 years. He comes from an area that often receives little to no rainfall in most seasons of the year which is usually not enough to grow crops. Back in 2017 Julius decided to venture into indigenous poultry farming as a coping mechanism to drought and also as a source of income. This is his 7th year practicing indigenous poultry production. “I came to know CIFORD Kenya through Tumaini self-help group where I joined in 2018 and we usually meet on a weekly basis”
Julius a member of Tumaini self-help group in Lairangi village attending to his indigenous chicken
“I have been trying to practice indigenous poultry farming over since 2017 but all has been in vain because the chicks have been dying due to different diseases that I had no knowledge of. Also inbreeding among my chicken has made me unable to identify the best chicken for breeding” Julius says
“When CIFORD Kenya came into our group and started training us on poultry production, I was able to pick the idea and began implementing what the Program officer trained. When the organization started working with our group, I had only 8 chicken but now I have 55 including the chicks and I have already sold 10 to pay my son’s school fees. The number of chickens I’ve had throughout the years is much more but documentation has been a challenge. Over the years, the area has been experiencing different poultry diseases that I had no idea identifying them leading me to give my chicken aloe vera and neem juice of which I don’t know what they treat in poultry” Julius said, “I really appreciate CIFORD Kenya because they have trained me on poultry breeding, poultry production systems, different types of poultry diseases and their management, feed formulation and vaccination programs”.
Julius’ son a form 2 student assists his father in taking care of the chicken during the weekends and school holidays.
Through CIFORD staff, Julius and his group members were vigorously trained on various aspects of poultry management and a majority of them picked the idea and are now successfully practicing poultry farming.
