Every village you go to in Lesotho, there’s at least one small chicken farm where you can buy live chickens to slaughter at home. It costs about four hundred and fifty Maloti to buy 100 chicks, and this makes chicken farming one of the easiest businesses to start, and the most likely to succeed.

These are the origins of Solid Rock Hatchery, run by Motebang Mohoanyane. Based at the Maseru Industrial area, every week tens of thousands of chicks are hatched here, but this still doesn’t meet the market demand. By midday all the chicks are gone. They take six weeks to be ready for consumption.

After 2 years in operation, Solid Rock realized that there was still a huge gap in the retail market, which is filled by imports. With the intention to establish an integrated poultry operation – from hatchery to farm to abattoir to market – the business needed to conduct a survey to find how to maximize their returns.

Through the study, funded by LEAP, they found that to supply retailers they have to establish a farm that can be operational throughout the year. “Most chicken farmers in the country are subsistence farmers, so their capacity is too low to sustain a full time abattoir, and many can’t operate in winter due to the high costs of heating necessary for broilers.” Says Mohoanyane.

He says the essential information revealed by the study will enable the business to grow and sustain the market in 2010. “For us LEAP came at the right time. But a lot of businesses in Lesotho start with no information, and end up failing. What surprised us was how smooth the process was, and how quickly our money got reimbursed as promised.” says Mohoanyane.

He pleaded with the Project to reconsider putting up funding upfront instead of after project completion. “Even the 40% that one pays is still a lot of money, and an indication of one’s commitment.”

With the level and quality of supply from local farmers currently, Mohoanyane says it is understandable that the market depends on imported supply, however, he hopes that once they prove that they are capable, government will also support them.

“This study will enable us to supply sufficient high quality chickens at competitive prices, and we hope that in time government will consider introducing industry protection like in Botswana and Namibia.” Motebang Mohoanyane.