Egerton University's indigenous chicken upgrade programme

Indigenous Chicken programme        by Mwangi Mumero

An indigenous chicken improvement programme has been launched at Egerton University, Njoro.

Funded by the European Union through the African Union, the Smallholder Indigenous Chicken Improvement Programme (InCIP) will combine research, breeding, value addition and marketing of indigenous chicken (IC).

This is a collaborative research involving Egerton University, which is the lead, University of Malawi and Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

“We are currently at the research level of the project where we are collecting genetic resources, producing the breeding stocks and hybrids for later dissemination to farmers”, observed Professor Alexander Kahi, the Project leader and a renowned researcher in animal breeding and genomics.

According to Prof. Kahi, the first step in IC improvement has been to identify various ecotypes available in the country and seek useful attributes that can be used for breeding and multiplication purposes.

“The main purpose of the programme is to improve IC egg and meat production through proper breeding, feeding, disease control and marketing. This will in turn improve on rural farmers’ income and reduce poverty. We are also working with government agencies and other players to link up with farmers as well as poultry product processors in value addition,” noted Prof. Kahi, who is also the Dean, Faculty of Agriculture at the university.

In the last year, InCIP researchers collected ecotypes from eight counties of Kenya, namely Narok, Bomet, Bondo, Kakamega, West Pokot, Lamu, Mwingi and Taita Taveta. The performance of these ecotypes has been evaluated.

Modern DNA techniques were used in identifying different ecotypes.

“Analysis from using DNA techniques indicate that the IC in Kenya can be clustered into three. The ecotype from Narok, Bomet, Bondo, Kakamega and West Pokot belong to the same cluster. So does the ecotype from Mwingi and TaitaTaveta.  The Lamu ecotype is distinct are is referred to  the Kuchi, originally from the Far East. The Kuchi is a big bird, stands upright and shows fast growth rates”, added Prof Kahi noting that selection of IC could be done on the basis of these three clusters to pursue either egg production or meat production depending on the traits in which the IC has shown superiority in performance.

 

Improvement and breeding of IC has already started at the station level within Egerton University’s InCIP Poultry Breeding and Research Unit.

InCIP has acquired Rhode Island Red (RIR) parent stock from Hendrix Genetics of Netherlands for crossbreeding with local ecotypes for hybrid production using artificial insemination (AI).

Another breed, the Black Australorp has also been suggested as a suitable breed for crossbreeding with the local IC and is currently being used in Malawi.

While the breeding programme is currently at the station level, a US $ 40,000 ‘Mega’ incubator with a capacity of 75,000 eggs has been acquired through the InCIP for the purpose of large scale chick production once the work moves to the on-farm phase.

At the same time, the programme has been formulating and marketing quality livestock feed for smallholder and large scale farmers across Kenya.

Through a feed miller that produces over 15 bags per hour, InCIP has been able to produce feed for poultry, dairy cattle, pigs and beef cattle.

A 70kg bag of broiler starter retails at Ksh 3,500 while that of finisher goes for Ksh 3,200 The price per bag of dairy meal ranges from Ksh 2,000- 2,700

Value chain mapping of the IC is also being carried out to streamline markets which have traditionally been unreliable and unpredictable due to price fluctuations.

To improve access on IC markets, the programme has incorporated a short message service (SMS) based marketing and information system. 

With this system, rural farmers will be able to access different market prices cushioning them from exploitation by middlemen and brokers.

Another unique inclusion into the programme is the testing of a chicken greenhouse before a private company in Kenya rolls it out. While greenhouses have been popularized for use by horticultural farmers, the chicken one provides conducive environment for rearing chicken.

Researchers at InCIP note that the greenhouse effectively raises labour productivity, reduces pollution from manure and lowers infection from diseases in chicken. It also has special isolated covers to protect chicken from extreme hot or cold temperatures.

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