Emmanuel - i am sending you a link to the agency in kampala Pearl Microfinance who partners with KIVA - on the right side is a link to 'send email' - it might be better coming from you, but I will be happy to do so if you prefer. Then check out Kiva.org and see what kinds of loans people ask for - what information they put up on line - it's really quite amazing. And, you will have to make a very clear budget. The usual loan is about $300, and, just quickly - if you buy 15 females for $450 USD and you borrow $900 to cover additional expenses then you're going to have to be able to sell the babies for quite a bit to the hotels - i wasn't able to do the conversion/weights. just so you do the math to begin, you should be alright.
http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=84
let me know if you have trouble using the link - you may have to join, the select "partners, Uganda", and look for Pearl Microfinanace.

--
Ginger :)

Hi Virginia,

Thanks for the link and your efforts!! Well, I would prefer you contacting them since you are well conversant with the whole criteria. I also checked the link but will also study the details on their web page.

Best Regards,
Emmanuel Menya

Emmanuel - I just heard from David - our project director - that Pearl is a disreputable place, so I will check more before applying to them - also there are others in Uganda i will look into this weekend -
--
Ginger :)

Hello everyone,

I would like to commend such a hard working local representative! Thanks Emmanuel for all the info. That's great that you managed to speak to the families that breed goats and to get valuable information.

I am not in favour of borrowing money to buy land - unless you are more than sure that your returns will be such that you will be able to repay the loan, and I don;t think you can be that sure. It might be a good thing only if you can get some money donated, so if anyone has some good ideas about how to raise money for that it would be great. I must say I doubt that a big amout can be raised for that, but you can try.
Can you tell us how much land you aim to buy and what is the price (in US dollars)? I think you also have to make sure that the land you're buying is good for cultivating - not only to build sheds and other neccessary buildings for animals.

Also, the waste land you mentioned in Business plan - where is it, how big is it and is there any grass or trees...?

If you decide to buy land, I don't think you should build a shed for goats immediately, and I also think you shoud buy several (2-3) goats rather than 15-20 - you'll be able to see how good the goats can be for you before you invest a lot and then maybe realize that it doesn't pay off. I believe that you should build shed and buy more goats when you get first returns to your investment in goats.

I don't remember that I read in BP how many people are involved in poultry farming and how many in goat breeding? I know there are 60 people in the project, but how many of them would breed goats?

Do you think you could find people around that would be interested in crossbreeding, to whom you could sell your male kids? Maybe you could get more money for a little buck if you sell it for breeding than if you sell it as meat - if a kilo costs 2-3$, you won't earn very much since a kid won't weight much. What do you think?

Also, you said that a doe is ready for mating as young as 2 months old. The thing is that they can get pregnant at that age, but it is not recommended. The earliest recommended age is 7 months
"Many producers wish to mate their does at the earliest possible age. The earliest potential age is at seven months... Up to 30% of does mated at an early age abort during the later part of pregnancy. Fortunately many small does do not conceive. Aborting young does waste a considerable amount of energy and protein which they would have used for their own body growth if they had not been mated."
http://acga.org.au/goatnotes/B012.php
"The doe kid may be able to reproduce at three months of age, but should not be allowed to do so, as her growth may be permanently stunted. To prevent this, buck kids should be separated from doe kids at an early age. If breeding doe kids is postponed much beyond 10 months of age, they will be less productive."
http://www.adga.org/facts.htm
The goats reproduce rather quickly, but not as quickly as you would wish, to make a very profitable business. Also, feeding is very important part and for a good outcome you need a good input too. I would suggest you to think about this as well, before you start.

As for breeding - what do you mean exactly when you say "local" goat? Is that the crossbred that your neighbours have, or the indigenous goats that produce very little milk?
For breeding you should always mate your does (whichever breed - domestic or crossbred) with crossbred dairy males (using your neighbour's bucks for example).

You said "Alternatively, we thought of assigning a goat to individual families where the youth live so that the youth can be able to utilize the resources that may be available at home such as access to land, housing, and feeds for the goats. This would also create a sense of ownership among the youth. What do you think?? "
I think this is a very good idea, and maybe it would be good to identify 2-3 such people that could get goats and start working, as a kind of pilot project maybe? It would be good that for beginning you don't buy neither food nor housing for goats (if that is possible for some of the youths?), but just to buy goats themselves, and start breeding. After the goats get first kids, you should be able to get some money for example by selling such crossbred kids at a higher price than domestic ones, and then buying more domesic females for further breeding. Do you think you would have market for that? I guess there should be interested people around that would like to get crossbred dairy goats?

What is the price of a liter of goat milk?
Maybe it would be good to search for training in milk products? If the youth learn how to make cheese, butter and other milk products they will add value to the milk and be able to sell it at a higher price. What do you think? I believe you would be able to find such a training in Uganda without much trouble. There are also other products of goats that they could be trained to make.

Finally, I would commend you also for making this business plan. I think it would look great if you added some more details about existing project - how many people are involved in poultry farming, how they started, how they are organized and especially some details would be great - how much you spent on a chicken, how many chickens you have, how many eggs they produce daily, for how much you sell an egg and a chicken (or a kg), then how you spend the money from selling them; then lessons learned etc.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Take care,
Sonja

Hi everyone,

Sonja thanks for the compliment! It’s the passion for my village that keeps me moving. Well about the land issue, I actually did bring out the idea so that Neighbors could suggest ways that the land issue could be solved. I think if it is possible to get donors that can help contribute to this cause, it would be very great. Like what Sonja said; it may not be feasible to secure a loan only to buy the land since land is not something that can bring us profits within a short time to be able to repay the loan. A loan is expected to be paid after a specific period of time! Sorry I did not specify what the loan would be used for! I meant that if we can secure a loan from Kiva as was suggested by Virginia, we could use it to secure the goats for the project and not the land.

Well the piece of land that we could purchase for the Youth projects costs 8,000,000UShs or 4102USD (i.e. 1USD=1950UShs). The waste land that I talked about in the business plan is far away from the village but can be accessed if agreed with the land owners say for planting animal feeds and grazing purposes.

About the number of youth who will take on the goat and the poultry rearing project, we had initially thought of implementing the two projects concurrently since some youth had interest in either projects and since the target number of youth is 60, half were to take on poultry and the other goat rearing. But after discussions with the village Neighbors, it was discovered that the poultry business was too capital intensive to implement or to start with especially with costs such as vaccination, feeding, electricity bills, rent etc. We therefore decided to concentrate on the goat rearing project for the beginning. May be the poultry project will come in after realizing substantial profits from the goat rearing project. By the way the local goats that I meant are the indigenous ones.

I concur with Sonja’s idea of selling the male kids due to the reasons that she gave that really make sense. There are some families around the village who rear the indigenous goats, so selling the male kids to them would be a service to them since they will realize improvements in the goat products after cross breeding. Ideally some families will be interested in buying the male kids. Many families would prefer to rear cross bred goats but are either ignorant about the cross breeding idea or have no access to the males!! It is very interesting that whoever sees the cross bred goat owned by the family in the village admires it!! It is well catered for. One of a “mother headed family” in the village secured one for herself. It is a mature one though without a male.

Indeed a 2months year old doe is too young to mate!! I meant that two months after the female goat has given birth, it can be ready to produce again. I also said in the business plan that within one and half years, the female goat is capable of producing two times since the gestation period of a goat is 5 months. All the same the information that you passed on about the age recommended for the doe to mate is very vital for the project. Thanks for the information Sonja!!

Sonja asked,” What is the price of a liter of goat milk?” The price of goat milk ranges between 600Ushs or (0.31USD) to 700Ushs or (0.36USD) per liter depending on the location. However, the family in the village involved in the goat rearing does not sell the milk to the market!! The family takes the milk.
I concur with Sonja’s idea of training the youth in making milk products since the youth have no skills in this section yet it would as well help the project realize higher returns. Well I think we will need to search for the different organizations that can help train the youth. Do you think there could be such organizations that are willing to offer free training to communities?

Sonja also suggested that the business plan would look great if I added some more details about the existing project. Well since the poultry project is now out of our scope, I will have to adjust it to suit the goat rearing project only though I will still need to give an account of how the youth began, their organization, start-up costs etc. Otherwise about the existing project, like I put it clearly in the business plan that the youth found a lot of constraints in the implementation of the poultry projects since they had no source of income that would sustain their projects. The money they began with was from their little savings got after doing some kind of temporary work for the people such as slashing compounds, washing bicycles, cars and motorcycles in either the town or in the neighboring trading centre of Mafubira. Lack of vaccination and enough feed for the chicks led to the death of a number of chicks. It is also worth noting that even those that survived were of poor quality implying that little returns were realized from the project. Perhaps the youth did not have proper planning for the project that they needed to implement. Since then, the youth got demoralized in the project since they did not achieve their main objective of poverty eradication/ employment opportunity. Thanks to the Neighbors who are trying to rejuvenate the youths’ efforts in addressing the high level of poverty among the youth who are the future fathers and mothers of the country!! How would they be able to sustain their families without income generating activities for them?
Otherwise I do appreciate your contributions! Have a nice weekend.
Best Regards,
Emmanuel Menya

Hi Virginia,

Thanks for your input!! I will wait for your response after you have exhausted the task. Otherwise I want also to wish you a nice weekend.

Best Regards,
Emmanuel Menya

Hi Carolyn DV,

On behalf of the Neighbors, I want to welcome Carolyn to Wakitaka! Thanks for joining us and we hope that you will enjoy the discussions too.

I wish you all the best.

Emmanuel Menya
(Local Rep)

Thanks Emmanuel- I'm slowly making my way through all the posts! Sounds like you've done a lot of work already :)

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the CDs. we are going to have time to watch the CDs and will give you the feedback.

Thanks a lot!

Emmanuel Menya
(Local Rep)

Hi Emmanuel and everyone,

I am really amazed to hear how your community started with poultry business! My complimets for such an initiative and hard work! I am convinced that it will pay off.
I imagine they are a bit disappointed now with poultry business, but please let them know that there are other opportunities that can be grabbed and that we will do our best to help them in that! Hope they will remain hard working and motivated!

About goats and land - 4100USD is really a lot of money, and even if you manage to get it all, I am not for the option of spending it to buy land. With that much money, no matter borrowed or donated, you can start a nice business. And if you spend it all on land, you will have to search for even more money to get animals and equipment. Honestly, I think it is not easily doable and I think it doesn't pay off.

What I believe would be better, is to rather start getting ideas about options that would not require a lot of land. One of such options could be beekeeping.

"You do not need land or wide open spaces to keep bees profitably. Hives can be kept in a small garden or on the roof of a townhouse, even on a balcony or in a tiny back yard.
Bees must be kept in areas rich in nectar-producing plants, like clover and other meadow flowers."

You can read about beekeeping business here:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Start-Your-Own-Bee-Keeping-Business&id=723326

You don't need expensive equipment, investment is not too high and first returns can be expected within a year. I am sure there is market for honey and other products in your neighbourhood.

Do you know of anyone around there that has bees? It would be great to talk to them, and also, if you decide to go for this solution, we would help you with finding training for beekeeping and other skills the community would need.

There is a very successfull Nabuur village in Sierra Leone that implemented such a project, maybe you could get in touch with them to learn more? I'm attaching their project plan that contains their activities, budget and predicted cash flow, so you can get a better idea how that looks like. I'm also attaching a document about beekeeping in tropics.

I would suggest you to think about this idea, talk about it with youth and also to brainstorm some other ideas that would not require purchase of land at a very beginning of the project.

It would be also good to hear from other neighbours their thoughts and ideas. I am sure we can find some good solutions for the problem with land

Take care,
Sonja

pr beekeep..pdf

bee keeping in tropics.pdf

Hi everybody,
I did find this document in one of the other villages where I am participating. It contains really a lot of business opportunities. Maybe Emmanuel can discuss these options with the youth and look if they are motivated to develop other businesses for which they don’t need their own land?

--
Warm regards, Lotte

develop a business.pdf

Hi everyone,

Sonja suggested that since a lot of money is required for purchasing land as indicated earlier on, then we would instead opt for bee keeping which is cheaper to implement. I concur with her. This would be a good project too. By the way what do we need to start a bee keeping project? Do we need to plant flowers? If yes, how far should the flowers be from the hive? What is needed to construct a bee-hive? How do we get the bees? Is there any special feed for them? Etc.

What about the mushroom project? Mushrooms sell a lot in Ugandan hotels and restaurants as a local dish. May be we can also think about it. But we need to know how and what is needed to get started.

I have tried downloading the pdf document that Lotte and Sonja attached previously but still finding problems with slow speed of the internet but as soon as I get them, I will print them out and discuss it with the youth otherwise the above options too are very good!

Best Regards,
Emmanuel Menya

Dear Emmanuel,
I think beekeeping will be an easier way to generate income. To cultuvate mushrooms you will need a cool and dark place to harvest them, they also need special soil and you will need a piece of land to build a shed to provide the mushrooms a dark place. So I think beekeeping is a better option. When you co this webpage: http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0104e/t0104e00.htm you find a book about beekeeping in Africa. They explain what you need to keep bees and how to produce bee hives. There are also some NGO's active in providing training and materials to local producers. If the youth decides to try develop a beekeeping business we can try to find out if they can provide you with the knowledge and goods.

I also found a discription about what you would need to develop a bee business in Kenya (1 dollar = 62,55 Kshs).

BARAKA BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
ITEM AMOUNT (Kshs)
Bee brush 180.00
Bee suit nylon (Without gloves) 2,900.00
Catcher Box 800.00
Clearer Board 300.00
Feeder Box 280.00
A pair of gloves 370.00
Hive stand 500.00
Hive tool 200.00
K.T.B.H 1,700.00
Langstroth hive 3,420.00
Langstroth super 1,200.00
Observation hive 1,200.00
Queen excluder (K.T.B.H) 250.00
Queen excluder (Langstroth) 150.00
Smoker 750.00
Solar wax melter 2,800.00
Top bar 20.00
Foundation sheet 35.00
Veil 730.0

These are all pre-made goods. So if you decide to develop the bee business we can research more oppurtinities to make the materials with the community, that will be a lot cheaper.

Now first I think you need to research if you can provide enough food for the bees so that they can produce honey. You can find a list with trees and flowers they like in the appendix of the internet book. If there are enough plants and the youth would like to try develop this business we can help you developing a project plan to develop a beekeeping business.

--
Warm regards, Lotte

Great work Lotte!

In addition to what is needed to set up a business, we need to know:

* possibility to sell the products and the prices. I think it would be good that Emmanuel and the community investigate where and at what prices they could sell honey and other bee products, and also mushrooms.
* transport possibilities for those products
* what is needed to produce those products – if there is anything they need for honey (and other bee products) production, in addition to the equipment needed to set it up and how much it costs
* training possibilities and other available information about beekeeping/mushrooms business in the area

I also thought of mushrooms last night and searched a bit on internet. What I found about setting it up sounds a bit complicated (maybe it just looks like that to me at first sight), but, for example, people here usually don’t do all that is explained there, but rather buy a sack with prepared soil and mushrooms. Then they need to provide special circumstances for growing the mushrooms, and that does not require a lot of space. Maybe the community could grow them at their homes? But the best would be to contact people in your neighbourhood that do that and ask them – they will have best info about where and how mushrooms can be grown in Uganda.
Also, there is Uganda Mushroom Society, which could be contacted for more info
http://ugandamushrooms.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=16&op=pag...

Whichever business they decide to develop, they’ll have to read and learn a lot, to acquire skills and knowledge. And we definitely need to work on getting practical training for them. Since the youth are hard working I believe they will be successful.
It is also important to get in touch with different people and organizations near you to get as much info as possible about beekeeping/growing mushrooms and also to see what kind of assistance you can get.

Emmanuel, I think it would be good that you and your community search around a bit to find people involved in these businesses to get as much info as possible, and to identify possible market(s) and prices.
I attached the doc here with phone numbers of different people and org. involved in beekeeping in Uganda, so you could search for those that live closest to you to phone them and ask for info.
On the other side, we could search more to find some online guides, to search and contact organizations that could help etc. When we get all the info we need to assess costs and benefits, the community can decide what is best for them to do and we could help develop the plan and start necessary activities.

It is also very important to plan carefully before investing in anything, to avoid failure. I think the best way is by starting very small, with minimum investments to try out how it will work and to get skills before expanding. And when you see that it could work for you, to invest more money in that.

Let me know what you all think.

Btw, bees need trees and meadows several kilometers around, people usually don't plant flowers for this purpose as far as I know. We'll check if there's any additional feed for bees, but I think polen from flowers/blossom is usually enough. What kind of plants do you have around?

Sonja

beekeeping uganda - contacts.doc

Hi Emmanuel,

Have you managed to download the documents we attached? Do you think it could work if I sent you the docs by email?

I extracted some most interesting things from project plan of Nabuur village in Sierra Leone that successfully implemented beekeeping project (the doc I attached in posting). Maybe you could get some good ideas from that?

„The villagers have been encouraged to build simple equipment that can be upgraded to higher-grade equipment as the profits allow.
* The first stage of the project involves the set up of a beekeeping school. The participants in this school include a local carpenter, a local trainer, the local representative, and representatives from the families that will be involved in the second stage of the project.
* The second stage will commence once the villagers are able to sustain a beekeeping operation. During this stage more resources will be provided for them to scale up what was learned during the first stage. The second stage also will focus on giving the villagers tools that will make the operation sustainable and to ensure that they are able to run it without external supervision.
With the use of this model, the costs of running the project are substantially lower than
in the case of providing them with the finished resources.
Beekeeping has been identified as an income-generating sustainable activity in different regions of Africa. Because beekeeping does not require heavy labour or massive land use, it has the potential of turning even a small initial investment into an ongoing stream of revenue.
The project has been designed to decrease costs by training the participants not only in beekeeping techniques but also in carpentry, allowing them to construct their own hives once they are ready to replicate the pilot effort.
Each stage of the project has been designed to maximise the involvement of the community by using local labour and resources to construct the hives, manufacture the necessary protective clothing, and for the training process.
* Equipment
o 10 Kenyan top-bar hives manufactured by a local carpenter
o 6 sets of protective clothing
o 1 smoking unit
o 10 colonies for the first ten hives
o Packing materials
* Training
o The local representative has contacted a trainer who will spend one
month with the participants to train them in beekeeping techniques.

Stage 2
The second stage will build upon the processes learned during the first stage. Stage 2 also will provide the necessary resources for the villagers to be able to replicate the process indefinitely using local resources.
* Resources
o Construction materials to build five more hives per family
o Materials to manufacture one set of protective clothing per family
o Construction materials to establish a small carpentry workshop to manufacture the hives
o Construction materials to build one honey extractor
o Beekeeping tools (one set per family)
o Packing materials
* Training
o Carpentry: The local carpenter who manufactured the first ten hives will be hired to (1) teach the villagers how to manufacture more hives, and (2) build the small carpentry workshop and the honey-processing and marketplace facilities.
o Management: One management expert will be hired to educate the participants on how to maintain their own units and to work together in a cooperative business.

Marketing strategy

After the ground work of the local representative of Gbongay and the contacts made by the virtual neighbours the following factors have been identified:
- In the local market, the honey is sold by volume, usually in 1 litre bottles.
- The local shops are able to buy directly from the community if offered a good quality product. They are paying to the suppliers an average price of 10,000 SLL per litre. The hives being used will ensure the quality of the honey is at the required specs for the market.
- There have already been initial conversation with local shop owners and interest has been shown. Local shops in Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Freetown have been identified as potential costumers.
Another alternative for of sale identified by the community is by direct marketing, using the highway that is close to the community. This method is already used with other products.
- Recognising the need to open alternative markets, contacts have been made with Honey Care Africa that has expressed its interest on buying the honey once the volumes are higher than 1 ton. This volume will be achieved from year one (approximately 2.2 tons). From there, the honey produced will be divided between the one sold in the local market and the one sold to Honey Care Africa.“

In the other document there’s info about feeding:

„A colony is fed to stimulate development during dearth periods. Regular feeding with small quantities of sugar solution (or diluted honey) stimulates the development of brood. The food that is stored in the combs is important for the survival of the bees but does not stimulate them to greater activity. A colony from which you have already removed honey cannot bridge a dearth period without being fed with sugar solution. You make a sugar solution by heating equal parts of sugar (good quality crystal sugar) and water until the sugar is dissolved ( do not boil). Never use brown sugar as it causes diarrhoea among the bees...“

Besides,I'm attaching a document that explains different types of hives and gives advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

I'll also look a bit more into mushroom growing in Uganda.

Sonja

013_Beekeeping_v0300A4.pdf