Busia, Uganda | URN | Poultry farmers in Busia District are increasingly crossing into neighbouring Kenya to buy feeds, vaccines and drugs, citing lower prices and rising production costs in Uganda. The farmers say a 50-kilogramme bag of starter crumbs costs about KSh4,139, equivalent to roughly Shs125,000, in Kenya, compared with Shs150,000 in Uganda.
A 50-kilogramme bag of concentrate, which farmers mix with broken maize, costs about KSh5,960, or Shs180,000, in Kenya, while the same product costs between Shs230,000 and Shs240,000 in Uganda. The price differences also extend to poultry vaccines and drugs. Farmers say fowl pox vaccine costs about KSh497, equivalent to Shs15,000, per dose in Kenya, compared with about Shs20,000 in Uganda.
They also buy a 100-gramme dose of fowl typhoid vaccine at about KSh596, or Shs18,000, in Kenya, compared with between Shs27,000 and Shs28,000 in Uganda. For coccidiosis treatment, farmers say a 100-gramme sachet of Coxi-dioses Amprollorium costs about KSh232, equivalent to Shs7,000, in Kenya, compared with about Shs12,000 in Uganda.
The price differences were highlighted during an economic mobilisation meeting in Majanji Sub-county, where farmers said the rising cost of poultry inputs was pushing some of them out of business. Samson Wanyama Wafula, a poultry farmer attached to Wasawa Poultry Farmers Group, said poultry farming was becoming increasingly expensive in Uganda, forcing farmers to seek cheaper inputs across the border.
Wanyama also said farmers were facing shortages of layer chicks, appealing to the government to support the establishment of a chick hatchery in the area. Hadijah Bony, a poultry farmer in Majanji Sub-county, said she keeps layers but struggles with the rising cost of feeds.Despite the challenges, Bony encouraged other farmers not to abandon poultry farming, saying she has been able to accumulate wealth through keeping hens.
Kassim Namudia, another poultry farmer from Mawero East B Village in Eastern Division, said farmers need to feed their birds at least three times a day to achieve good returns.
He said farmers who manage their birds properly can begin benefiting from poultry within two to three months, but high feed prices are eating into their earnings.
The farmers are calling for government intervention to reduce the cost of poultry inputs, improve access to chicks, and help make poultry farming more affordable in Busia.
