Shift to Kalro indigenous chickens for profitLocal indigenous chickens lay only 80 to 100 eggs a year and they take nine months to start laying. Roosters take seven to eight months to reach market weight. Kalro-improved indigenous chickens lay 230 to 250 eggs and will start laying when they are five months old. Roosters reach a market weight of 1.6kg in two months. A KC3 hen can lay up to 230 eggs per year. The country’s annual production of day-old chicks is 600,000 yet demand is more than two million.

The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) has embarked on avocado seedling multiplication to scale up production of the fruit as farmers eye the lucrative European market. Through the initiative, KALRO targets to avail avocado seedlings at its centres spread across the country to help increase the acreage of land under the crop in the country. This comes as Kenya moves to claim a spot among the largest exporters of avocado in the world through an aggressive campaign to tap into new markets outside Europe.

The Government has stepped up efforts to promote seed bulking initiatives to bridge the shortage of livestock feed and fodder in the country. According to the department of Animal feeds and nutrition at the Ministry of Agriculture and livestock, the country needs at least 55 million metric tonnes of feed annually but only provides 40 percent and most of it lost in post-harvest loses. The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) has been working through community seed bulking initiative to produce, store and market seeds material for feed. Click here for more information