The Kisii County Government has launched a Sh 7 million poultry project for school children to nurture entrepreneurship skills and fight poverty.

The County Government has partnered with a group of university students who have successfully run the One Hen Campaign Project in the Gusii region.

Dubbed 'One hen at a time', the project will see a total of 2500 primary school children receive one chicken and a cage. One primary school in each of the 45 wards will benefit from the project with each receiving 50 cages and chicken.

Launching the project at Kionganyo primary school in Bobaracho Ward, County Executive Member in charge of agriculture Vincent Sagwe said poultry rearing could potentially eradicate poverty and create employment.

"Our county is facing a crisis with the average age of farmers being 50 years. We want to bring this age down by encouraging young children to venture into agriculture while developing entrepreneurial skills," said Sagwe.

He urged farmers to seek technical advice from agricultural extension officers and shun the culture of associating poultry diseases to witchcraft.

In the project, children will rear the chicken as a co-curricular activity and each beneficiary is expected to donate two chicks to the project for onward donation to other children.

Innovation Empowerment Project (IEP) Chief Executive Officer James Makini said a farmer can raise up to 100 chicks in one year from a single hen.

"This project has several advantages as the children will benefit nutritionally from consuming eggs while gaining skills in numeracy and entrepreneurship. All beneficiaries have so far been trained on modern practices of raising chicken. The children can save a minimum of one egg per week in Sky Sacco and these savings can be used when they reach majority age," explained Makini.

Makini is one of 500 Africans who are attending the first ever Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Washington Fellowship, a new flagship project by US president Barrack Obama.