Kenya Poultry Consultancy Platform (KPCP)

Generally, poultry is a key livestock sub-sector in many of the rural households and thus deserve a lot of focus to enhance its productivity. As is true with the consumption of other livestock products, that of poultry meat has also been increasing over time. In 2000, the consumption of poultry meat was about 65 metric tons but the same is expected to grow to 165 metric tons by 2030. The drivers of this growth in consumption include preference for white meat which is perceived to be healthy and the fact that it takes short time for poultry to be harvested for food as compared to other livestock species. However, the growth in poultry meat consumption is not growing in tandem with that the human population as the quantity consumed is declining.

In 2017, the country had about 40.1 million indigenous chickens with Migori County being the largest producer by 3.6 million birds followed by Homabay County at 2.9 million, Kakamega County coming third at 2.5 million birds and Bungoma County at 2.4 million birds coming fourth. These four counties have the largest numbers of indigenous chickens because of the socio-cultural value attached to the chickens. In addition, these regions especially Migori and Homabay have large tracts of land to support free ranging chickens as well as being the largest producers of sorghum which is used as poultry feed. The counties with the largest population of indigenous chickens has the least number of commercial poultry.

Kiambu County is the largest producer of commercial chicken enterprises with 0.7 million broilers and 1.12 million layers. This county has the least land holding and also is in close proximity to Nairobi which provides market for the poultry products.

The proposed platform will invite and register “experts” based on geographical location, value chain function and resume. Actors along the value chain will have the opportunity to register and consult on various issues. Registered farmers will have an opportunity to market their produce to interested buyers. The platform will initially start with the poultry value chain and use the experience to build other value chains. The Sustainability will be based on funds generated through the service delivery and marketing of products which will offer trace-ability and monitor customer satisfaction.