Meet Teacher Building a Livestock Farming Empire

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No one else could be so enthusiastic about agriculture than an ambitious teacher in Umoja Village in Lugari, Kakamega County. The teacher is a determined entrepreneur and he intends to build it into a grand project, and make a fortune out of it.

Mwalimu Gilbert Okech, who teaches at Idavaga Muslim Secondary School in Mbale, Vihiga County, has already set up a fishery with five ponds, an apiary with 30 beehives, a dairy cattle pen, a pigsty, has a number of turkeys and rabbits – all in his 8-acre piece of land. 
He manages this though his staff assigned to different tasks.

His farm has a number of activities, from making silage for future use by dairy cattle to feeding the fish in the ponds.

Mwalimu Gilbert's farm is a behive of activities. These are maize stalks ready for being turned into silage.

He says he borrowed the well-thought idea of keeping livestock from Mwitokho Farm County and Gil’s Farm in Vihiga; Vihiga County Fisheries Department, Dr Mamadi’s Apiary in Busali, Jungle Honey Enterprises and Mwitokho Fish Farm in Bunyore.

He also used much of the internet and social media in his research, he says.

“I am a teacher by profession, yet I am really fascinated by agriculture. I began with crop farming but came to realise that it doesn’t pay as much as livestock farming,” he asserts, adding that he finds agriculture exciting compared to teaching, and wouldn’t mind switching careers in future.

Silage for dairy cattle

The preparation of silage under the hot sun is underway as Vincent Karome, one of his employees, chops the raw maize stalks using one of the two electric chaff cutters. Others collect the chopped staff and puts it into a pit nearby covered with a black polythene, roll a heavy container with water over it to glue it together and pours mollases at intervals, meant to preserve it.

Vincent Karome working on one of the chaff cutters.

“The mollases contains essential nutrients for the animals. The silage is put into the pit and will form a heap. It will be covered with a waterproof material to prevent any water from leaking in. Water can cause the silage to rot,” Karome explains.

(Photo: After molasses is poured on the raw silage, pressure is applied on it to make it stick together)

This activity continues for the second day after it was cut short by the heavy rain. The raw material indeed forms a heap which will eventually be covered with the black polythene and soil heaped over it.

Mwalimu’s Fish Ponds

Mwalimu Gilbert manages four ponds at the extreme end of his farm. He keeps tilapia and mudfish.

The ponds, which get supplied with water from a spring just nearby, look magnificent under the morning sun. The fingerlings can be seen making ripples in the pond water.
Mwalimu says that the project was set up two months ago and it is now two weeks since the first 3,200 fingerlings were introduced.

One of the five fish ponds.

The project cost him a good deal of cash, but he says it is a worthy investment.

“The project cost me a total of Kshs 125,000. Kshs 105,000 went into digging the ponds, each around Kshs 35,000. Kshs 16,500 was used in purchasing the fingerlings while around Kshs 3,000 went into purchasing fish feeds for the first one month.

Mwalimu Gilbert's son feeding the fish.

The fish, Mwalimu says, will be ready after six months, and will fetch about Kshs 250,000 in the market.

“Fish farming is a sure source of income because fish, being a reliable source of proteins, have a ready market,” he says, adding that he intends to add more ponds to cover a one acre piece of land.

The buzzing apiary

Adjacent to the pond lies an open structure swarming with bees, called an apiary. Inside, are seven bee hives. Other 23 hives still hang on trees awaiting to house bees.

Mwalimu says bees are transferred to the apiary three weeks after they settle in the hive.

“Melted wax is put into the hives to attract swarming bees. Upon bees settling, they are transferred into the apiary at night, which becomes their home for time on,” he says.

Meters away from the apiary is a farm with sunflower, which Mwalimu says was purposefully for bee nectar and cattle feed. There are also cheers, also meant for nectar, flowering in blue just behind the hives.

Mwalimu Gilbert standing in front of his apiary.

Mwalimu calls bee keeping the most profitable livestock project, having only spent about Kshs 296,000 in purchasing the 30 hives, setting up the apiary and constructing a security fence around it.

“More so, the cost of maintaining the apiary is considerably low since little extra work is to be done when bees are settled into the apiary…there is no feeding of the bees like for the fish in the ponds, ” he adds.

Mwalimu Gilbert says that his apiary, which together with the nearby vegetation covers one acre of land, will fetch him a whooping Kshs 500,000 or more just by the first harvest in the next six months!

 

- Written by Sam Oduor

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