Best Farmers 2025: Kamuli's Zubairi Laliyo Mukaaya is Busoga's best

VISION GROUP | HARVEST MONEY | BEST FARMERS | KAMULI

In Nankandulo village, Kamuli district, a man once dismissed as “just another dropout” is now the region’s leading supplier of chicks. Zubairi Laliyo Mukaaya’s rise from ferrying eggs on a bicycle to running a 45,000‑bird farm is more than a business success—it’s a story of hope, family, and the power of refusing to give up.

In 2016, Muaaya, started poultry farming with 10 local birds. He ferried their eggs to hatcheries in Mukono, 80km away, before breeding the chicks at home. By 2025, his enterprise, Bakusekamaja Poultry Farm, had 45,000 birds and three incubators producing 40,000 chicks per month. Other enterprises include fish ponds, coffee, maize, bananas, and goats.

Humble beginnings

Mukaaya dropped out of school in Primary Three and joined his now deceased father, fishing on lakes Kyoga and Victoria. Finding the trade unprofitable, at 25, he quit and tried hawking ripe coffee berries and rrunning a retail shop, but both ventures failed.

He later traded in coffee husks, which took him to Mukono, where he visited a poultry farm owned by John Mukasa, now deceased. Inspired, he ventured into poultry starting with one hen fertilised by a neighbour’s cock. It laid eight eggs, hatched them, and within eight months he had 70 birds.

His breakthrough came when officials from the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) gave him 300 chicks and start‑up feeds. By 2008, he had 520 birds, attracting the attention of then Speaker of Parliament Rebecca  Alitwala Kadaga, who lobbied for him to receive a sh15m hatchery and a power line. With the hatchery, his capacity rose to 3,000 chicks per week, and his flock grew to 8,000.

Between 2011 and 2018, he bought two more hatcheries at sh30m each. By 2025, his 45,000 birds were laying 8,000–11,000 eggs daily, sustaining three hatcheries that produced 10,000 chicks weekly.

Poultry operations

To ensure smooth production, Mukaaya set up a brooder where chicks are received and vaccinated. A permanent worker oversees the hatchery and addresses any technical faults.

The farm rears Saso (dark brown) and Kuroiler (grey‑spotted) breeds. In 2025, chicks went for sh2,500–sh10,000 depending on age, while cocks and off‑layers fetch sh45,000–sh50,000.

According to Richard Musenero, the district production and marketing officer, Mukaaya is the leading supplier of the Saso and kuroiler birds in Busoga and eastern Buganda regions.

Chicken droppings are sold as manure at sh15,000–sh20,000 per sack, while the rest fertilises his maize, beans, and coffee fields. To cut feed costs, three youths mix maize bran, broken maize, and coffee husks with Koudjis concentrates.

Mukaaya grows six acres of coffee and two acres of maize, which supplement the poultry enterprise, especially during feed shortages. He uses mulching with sugarcane leaves and contour basins to conserve water.

This is the tenth year running that Vision Group, together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines, dfcu Bank and Koudijs Animal Nutrition, are running the Best Farmers competition. The 2025 competition run from March to November, culminating in today’s awards ceremony.