Feature: Kenyan farmers embrace innovation

The past 20 years of Kenyan Joseph Mwangi's poultry farming have been costly with death of his chicks in cold weather.

He lives in Salama, a remote village in the Central Rift county of Laikipia, far away from a nearby trading center and where temperatures can reach a freezing point, endangering lives of a new brood while pushing up demand for fuel to keep the house warm.

But Mwangi has found a better way to end death of his chicken, at least from cold related problems, in a cheaper way and at the same time cutting on consumption of firewood.

His technique is the use of an integrated rearing cooking stove, which constitutes of ceramic liners, a brooder and a resting chamber. "This stove has really helped me," Mwangi told Xinhua on Monday.

"My chicks used to die from cold till I almost gave up but you know poultry farming is a source of income to me. I am happy that is no longer happening," said the small scale farmer who has been using the stove for almost two years now.

The integrated rearing cooking stove can be built with locally available materials such as clay or mud and sticks to separate the brooder from stoves.

The ceramic liners or stoves sold at 3.5 U.S. dollars each are built into the mud or clay base. One can choose to have a concrete finishing. The household can also opt for one or two ceramic stoves depending on their needs.

Below the liners is a space that serves as the brooder where the chicks can keep themselves warm. The base is attached to the resting chamber and the chicks can move freely.

Mwangi has constructed his with clay and his brooder can hold 50 chicks at a time. "Using paraffin or charcoal is another alternative available to keep them warm but it's expensive," he said.

However, small animal scientists warn against using paraffin or charcoal in warming chambers or cages where the chicks rest.

Dr. Tony Kiragu, a poultry veterinary said the carbon gases produced from the transitional fuels cause death of chicks due to chocking.

"I have experiences where a farmer will call you with disheartening news of death of all his newly bought chicks and they cannot tell you the cause. You only come to realize their mistake when you see a jiko. Farmers should avoid using jiko," said Kiragu, also a managing director of Nature Kuku, which hatches improved indigenous chicken and offers poultry extension services.

"Paraffin lamps are not only source of choking gas but very dangerous because they can fall off and cause fires burning the chicks and whole structure," he said.

For him, innovations are welcome for use among the farmers as long as they are proved to be working efficiently and effectively.

However, for small scale farmers like Mwangi, using stoves is too irresistible. Reduced consumption of firewood is another merit not to be ignored..

The stove cooks three meals a day with two pieces of firewood and remains warm for 12 hours, he said. It is compact and closed which prevents loss of energy to the sides, he said.

The innovative stove was introduced to him by a local non-governmental organization and he is happy to have adopted it.

He said it important that farmers in the rural areas are assisted to transform from traditional ways of farming to better methods.

Peter Waweru, chief executive officer of Sustainable Practical Program for Africa, an organization which empowers Kenyan farmers with agribusiness information, said rural farmers are the main pillars of the country's agricultural sector and this calls for more attention on them to ensure they modernize their farming.

"Farmers do contribute to destruction of the natural resources and that directly affects their farming. Consider deforestation and climate change. You cannot therefore avoid to educate them on better methods of farming and innovations they can adopt to improve their agricultural practices," he said.

Waweru said innovations that address multiple problems are more effective in changing the lives of rural farmers and reduce rate of environmental degradation.

Among the initiatives, Kenyan government is implementing to promote environmental resilience while improving livelihoods is training women on making energy saving stoves, encouraging adoption of agroforestry and use of solar power. Endit