Poultry farming

I bought a quarter-acre plot of land for 2 million shillings and a one-and-a-quarter-acre farm for 600,000 shillings, where I grow cassava, maize, and sunflower. When I blessed my marriage, I successfully contributed 1 million shillings and slaughtered 62 chicken as food for the event. Initially, I was raising local chicken, but after receiving training, I switched to raising hybrid chicken. I started with 100 chicken, and now I have 200, and I plan to build more chicken coops to expand my farming.

Before joining the poultry farming project, I had 50,000 shillings as capital in my local beauty business, making sales between 250,000 and 300,000 shillings. After starting poultry farming, my income increased, and I added 500,000 shillings to my beauty business, which allowed me to secure 750,000 shillings in total. . Since acquiring the incubator, I have already hatched my own eggs three times, and now my family consumes eggs three times a week, compared to once a month as before. This project has also helped me improve my chicken coop and sell roosters to neighbors. Overall, it has greatly improved my family’s life and allowed us to avoid environmentally harmful activities.

These funds were also used to purchase sand and bricks to finish my house and renovate another by installing rent and paint. Rent payments from tenants increased from 25,000 to 50,000 shillings per month.

In 2021, I transitioned from struggling as a charcoal seller in Mkindo Village to poultry farming after joining the Mkindo Kuku Farmers group. With EAMCEF’s training, I grew my flock from 10 to 200 chicken, improving my family’s financial stability and upgrading my home with an extra room, iron roofing, and a window.

If it were not for the chicken I wouldn’t have afforded my heart treatments in Dar es salaam, they [chicken] saved my life In the past, I could only farm one acre but now I can employ casual labourers and farm up to four acres.

Before joining the project my main source of income was from casual labour – attending other people’s farms, but the income was so small and untimely. To date, through sales of eggs and chicken I have been able to buy my own farm, bought a water pump for my garden and I can now feed my family throughout the year. Through these chickens I accumulated some money and decided to construct an improved house, iron-roofed and comfortable for my family

In 2017 alone, I earned more than TZS. 700,000 from sales of eggs and chicken, used part of the money to buy a dairy cow…this would have been impossible if it were not for the chickens! Chickens can help me address my financial needs without crying out for help from relatives or neighbors.

For the last three years chicken [meaning income from sales of chicken] have been paying for my children’s school fees, one of the children was able to join the college and is now employed. We are very much respected in our village just because of chicken, we are now eligible to get loans from Village Community Banks (VICOBA) for other entrepreneurship activities. I don’t expect to go back to the forests for Ndezi because there is enough meat [chicken] available at the community level especially within my compound.