The government is encouraging farmers to adopt integrated farming systems that include poultry, fish and vegetables to reduce waste, lower costs and provide more diverse income streams. Farmers are being encouraged to utilise by-products from one area of farming to help the next through the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) and Wezesha Agribusiness Programme.

Poultry manure is used to fertilise the fish ponds to encourage natural fish feed and the nutrient rich water is then used to water the vegetable gardens. The initiative is also encouraging young people to get into farming, with at least 5,000 having been trained in climate-smart farming in the last two years.

Miriam Ojakol and Rebecca Odalo in Busia County have implemented improved poultry housing and biosecurity after suffering losses. “We have improved our housing so we can avoid infections from roaming,” said Ojakol, who farms at Angoorom.

Odalo in Malaba changed her poultry management practices after losing 30 of her first 100 chicks due to rodents getting into her poultry house. She added wire mesh to close up the gaps.

“You can improve your output without having large farms. You can utilise the space better,” said Odalo. “It doesn’t mean you have to have a large farm. We have improved our housing and shelving so we can have more poultry.”

The Wezesha Agribusiness Programme is providing hands-on training to young farmers and aims to improve access to funding. The project is trying to change the perception around farming to encourage young people to get into farming said Project Coordinator Philip Steve.

“The youth that are there we are changing the notion that agriculture is a dirty job and we want to grant them access to finances and also market,” he said.

The project is a collaboration between LBDA, Safaricom Foundation, Ustadi Foundation and County Government of Busia. The authority is trying to create affordable poultry feeds as feed is a large cost in production, said LBDA Managing Director Wycliffe Ochiaga.

“It is costly to price eggs locally and the highest cost in feeds. So that is why as an authority we are working towards developing feeds so that our farmers can access the feeds at affordable prices,” he said.

They have also created a poultry technology transfer centre in Kisumu which produces around 300 trays of eggs each day.

This initiative comes as Kenya tries to improve local poultry production. Kenya currently has around 52 million poultry birds, mostly indigenous chickens raised by small scale farmers, but suffers from a gap in supply with around 6,000 tonnes of poultry meat and five billion eggs missing each year, according to Citizen Digital. This comes from the 2024 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey.

Integrated farming will help farmers produce food through multiple processes whilst reducing waste and reliance on one income stream. However, it will be important to ensure correct application of manure, monitoring water quality, avoiding disease, affordable inputs and reliable markets.