×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Mberengwa farmers invest in egg hatchery project

Agriculture
They are the vibrant Zebra Poultry Group from Mberengwa.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI MAGGIE Dube and her four friends are popular figures in their home area of Mberengwa.

Their popularity rose after they launched a hatchery centre at one of their group members` home to enhance access to day-old-chicks.

They are the vibrant Zebra Poultry Group from Mberengwa.

“For years, most women in our area had struggled with the cost of travelling to distant shopping centres to book for day-old chicks before going to collect them,” said Dube.

Fortunately, tides took a turn following the announcement of the Innovation Technology Fund grant, under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund-Enhancing Community Resilience and Inclusive Market Systems (ZRBF ECRIMS) project, which the Zebra group applied for and received funding.

They pitched an idea to hatch eggs for their local community using a 540-egg dual solar and electricity powered hatchery.

The solar system generates 1 080 volts.

The group has come a long way with their dream.

“We started raising chickens in 1992 using primitive methods. I remember at one point we were called to a community meeting where we got introduced to another poultry breed. However, we encountered challenges. The chickens were producing more cockrels (than hens), so we decided to stop. It was not viable or profitable either,” Dube explained.

Together with her friends, they decided to venture into broiler production, ordering broiler chicks from  the nearby Zvishavane town.

But they also faced constraints over transport fares, which made the venture less profitable.

“We then agreed to venture into hatching eggs. However, we had no hatchery so we would buy eggs and allocate them to everyone`s hens for hatching, but still it was not that profitable. It was after this experience that we then came across the ZRBF Innovation and Technology Grant, which we went on to apply for and received a dual power hatcher,” Dube told NewsDay Farming.

At first, just like most new things, the group had challenges operating the machine; but, over time and continued training by the hatchery supplier, they gained experience.

The group also benefitted from monitoring by the ZRBF ECRIMS Project.

“From our first batch we only hatched two chicks out of 100. However, after training, we did another batch of 100 and they all hatched. Right now, we have another batch of 100 from which 90 have already hatched. We are now waiting for the remaining 10,” she narrated.

From the batch of 100 that they harvested, they sold 70 chicks at US$1 each. They then agreed to keep the remaining 30 as it would have been less profitable for them to sell because they had overgrown, and buyers would often offer less to buy them at US$0,60 when the group had incurred feeding costs.

With the income that the group is generating now, they are sustaining the venture buying eggs and selling the chicks. The eggs are being bought at US$3,50 a crate and they buy 5kg chicken feed for US$4 to feed the 100 chicks. They then sell the hatched chicks at US$1 each giving them US$100 in sales income besides their additional income from hatching for the community at US$4,50 a crate.

‘We are really grateful to the ZRBF ECRIMS project. They even came and capacitated us in record keeping, business management and financial literacy to help us run profitably. They also educated us to have a constitution which is guiding us in our operations,” Dube said.

The group is currently hatching rainbows, but they eventually would like to venture into Sasos because they have better meat quality.

Most of their current customers are local neighbours. However, they hope to expand the market by advertising to surrounding wards since they are the only hatching service providers in the area.

“Poultry production is very beneficial. It gives us income to meet household expenses, meat for relish and nutrition for our children and manure for good crop growth. Besides these it also helps us popularise our communities as other people come and learn from us,” Dube added.

  • Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe