By Agnes Nantambi
Daniel Masaba is a 30-year-old retired medical doctor from Mbale district. Born in a very humble family, he was blessed to make it to the university because of his passion to study and wisdom.
“I got to university under a scholarship from government. In my first year, it was quite hard to get money to sustain myself. My parents did not have money to support all of us. We were many children; the focus was always fees and tuition.”
While at the University, Masaba had to find ways of making money to survive. Back in secondary school he had a sponsor having attained very good grades.
“He gave me money which I used to buy a computer to learn photoshop. I started to design stickers and posters for churches and students during university campaigns.
Masaba in secondary school had learnt to play the guitar. He was also a good orator, in secondar. “I started MCing at compass, medical diners and birthdays.”
Masaba then joined a band. He started playing with the band at weddings, and later moved into bars. “All these gigs earned me money to survive at University.”
After five years, he graduated as a medical doctor. “I was working as a field doctor moving from one hospital to another doing surgeries and treating people.”
As a doctor, I earned a net salary of sh3m. “I felt it wasn’t enough compared to my dreams,” Masaba said.
In 2019, he took a tough decision to quit the profession. While he expected to pursue the medical profession to bring joy and pride to the family, it took courage to live a life true to his dreams and not what others expected.
Leaving the prestigious career of a doctor to do poultry farming seemed like a ridiculous thought and came with criticism from society and family.
However, for Masaba, the medical career wasn’t enough to live comfortably and fulfil his dreams, he opted for Poultry farming.
“During my research, I met an expert who was to teach me greenhouse farming instead, he suggested that I join chicken farming which left me puzzled.”
For an expert in green house farming to advise me otherwise, I knew something was wrong with my preference and I believed I would get better results with chickens. In 2019, I started reading about poultry farming, and joined the business.”
How he started.
Masaba set up a poultry farm in Mbale. At the beginning, he had trouble identifying good workers and poultry feeds, but he gained experience.
I would dedicate my weekends on the farm and on week days work as a doctor. I had my doctor’s salary and earned between sh3-4m out of the 800 birds on my farm.
However, two days a week on the farm was not enough. “My farm was giving me the most money than being a doctor. I concentrated on it.”
“After reading people’s stories abroad, I noticed that I can make money simply from teaching people about chicken farming. I decided to create a YouTube channel simply to share my passion and teach people about chicken farming.”
Currently, his YouTube channel has over 1000 subscribers. “With it came money from YouTube Advertising and exposure to people who want to learn about chicken farming globally.”
“I have developed a consultancy for chicken farming where I charge people $100 for every three hours, they spend with me online. If you want to start a farm which is going to earn you about 20m a month, the $100 is not something big to worry about.”
“Looking at my dreams and investment, I believe in the two years, there is no way I will be earning less than sh50m a month, something I would have never done by being a doctor.”
Masaba says, being a doctor, it’s important to invest a lot of money and go back to school, and specialize to be able to earn at least sh10m a month, that’s if you are working in different hospitals. “But for me, that’s almost triple what I earn without struggling,” he said.
“There are doctors who live on loans because they are secured somewhere. The banks are willing to give them a loan of sh30m but they have to spend about two years paying back which is taking half of their salary meaning, you will just be moving with the prestigious title of a doctor.”
“I am a farmer leaving a happier life. I feel it is a happier life with a lot of relief and satisfaction.”
How he applies his medical knowledge into chicken farming.
According to Dr Masaba, chicken, just like humans get a fever, even TB. “The knowledge I acquired as a medical doctor, is very helpful. I can look at hens and quickly tell they have a problem with respiration.”
“The moment I identify this, I read and quickly figure out which kind of medicine I can give the birds. Of recent my birds had foul typhoid, it’s easier to discover or know the problem because I am a doctor,” Masaba said.
He observed that viruses in general and on average are very hard to treat just like Covid-19. “This is the same in chickens. “New castle is a viral disease and once it comes on to your farm, it can clear all the birds.”
“But with my education, I never need a vet on my firm. I only acquire their service when I see something serious.”
Types of birds on the farm
Masaba who keeps layers on his farm, says he found it easier to market them than broilers since his farm is located in Mbale.
“The problem of marketing broilers is that once they reach six weeks, you must sell them off. If you don’t have market, every other day that goes by, you are losing money because you have to feed them. The person buying cannot be charged extra money for keeping them for so long. The price remains the same. With layers, they stay longer as they are kept for eggs.”
Masaba says having a farm in Mbale has also worked to his advantage. “Unlike in Kampala where there is a lot of competition, in Mbale the competition is not so stiff, making it easier for me to sell at a higher price.”
“For example, when COVID-19 hit, people in Kampala were selling their eggs at sh5000 but the lowest I sold a tray of eggs was sh7500 because People from Kampala had brought their eggs to Mbale to sell to those taking them to Kenya.”
Capital investment.
Currently, Masaba is setting another hatchery farm producing one day old chicks for both layers, broilers and dual-purpose birds like the kembrois because they are on demand country wide.
He was driven to venture into chicks because of shortages. He said as a farmer, currently they have to book chicks from neighboring Kenya.
“Last year I had an experience where I booked birds in June and it got to October and I had still not received the chicks. I had to get back my money, and I had to import the birds from Hungary, “he explained,
This he says prompted him to start a hatchery to easily distribute chicks to people around in order to decrease the stress and the demand people go through in order to get the birds.
However, he remains undecided whether to venture into the dual-purpose chicken.
Challenges encountered
Diseases according to Masaba are a major problem encountered at the chicken farm, “Recently I was struck with foul typhoid, I got to lose some birds and when I read, the minimum you lose is 60% of the birds but I was lucky that I lost only 10% of my birds.”
“The advantage is that it teaches you, usually without experiencing something, it is hard for you to move to the next level. When my birds died, I put strict measures on the farm to make sure that no sickness comes into my farm.”
Others he said include funds especially when you are keeping layers. “When I was starting up, the only money I had was my doctor’s salary, and you had to buy the feeds yet they were very expensive, it was very hard up to the time the chicken started laying.”
“I remember I would go for two months without paying rent, sometimes I had to spend something like sh2000 a day because the chicken had to eat.”
“If you have not planned very well, that is how you hear people selling their chicken at 3-4 months because it becomes too much for them. You need to have very good planning before you start chicken farming, if you don’t get stuck and defeated.”
Regarding workers, Masaba said so far, he has fired several workers who had turned his firm into their source of earning.
“These guys started very well but later, they started selling eggs and created a chain of customers where they sell, “he said.
Career guidance visa-vee one’s passion.
Masaba’s parents desired for their child to be a doctor. But Masaba says that if you want your child to be happy for the rest of their lives, do not enforce them to do something which is going to keep them in a miserable life because of prestige coming from being a doctor or lawyer.
“We need to push these children to do things which keeps and gives them happiness because it’s not the parents who leave the children’s life. 90% of my friends are doctors but they can’t even think of leaving their profession.”
Masaba said the advantage of being a doctor is that you can easily go back to the profession at any time if you wish.
“I didn’t waste my time studying medicine but I encourage parents to take their children to the best schools because they help you learn better and do what they are interested in. I am happier being a chicken farmer than being a doctor,” he said.
He has also learnt to speak Spanish and other languages fluently through studying on his own via YouTube and has been able to easily communicate with his clients worldwide.
“I love playing with birds, despite other farmers detesting them for making noise,” he said.
Masaba also said he loves singing for the birds saying they get used, stop being stressed and lay more eggs.
Currently he says, he gets a lot of visitors including his fellow doctors which has inspired others to begin poultry farming as aside business despite a lot of fear that it is a risky venture.
Messages
“It is ok to be who you are and do what you want to do,” Masaba said.
He said it is also ok not to be what others what you to be. “Even if you are on the death bed, you will struggle for your life alone, Society has its own expectations.
“People keep talking but don’t care about you, no one will care but a doctor abandoning his profession for chicken farming, they only seem to care, but if tomorrow you wake up without rent nobody will care.”
Masaba advised “Do what make you happy as long as you are not a terrorist, you are more likely going to succeed than doing something which you are forced to do.
Parents should leave their children do what they want to do and just keep on encouraging them to do what they want to do. “Right now, people are consulting me from Nigerian, Ghana, Gabon and South African and reaching out to me for guidance on how to start a chicken farm,” Masaba explained.
