By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
CHICOL Estates, an integrated poultry farm in Lusaka’s Twin Palm area, has embarked on a thermal power plant feasibility study which will result in electricity generation from chicken droppings.
Estate director Aaron Chungu said there are plans to set up a thermal power plant using chicken droppings at the farm.
“We have plans to set up a thermal power plant at the farm to start producing electricity in view of the serious power cuts the country and the region are experiencing,” Mr Chungu said.
With the implementation of the cost-reflective electricity tariffs, he said the intention to set up a thermal power plant had been boosted.
“Way back, we wanted to set up a power plant using chicken manure but the tariffs were not encouraging, but now that the country has moved towards cost-reflective tariffs we have embarked on a study which will culminate into  setting  up one at the farm to produce enough power for our production and the surplus to the national grid,” he said.
Mr Chungu, who could not state the actual amounts of power earmarked to be generated, was speaking in an interview in Lusaka recently.
At a Press conference recently, President Edgar Lungu announced that the Government would implement cost-reflective pricing and tariffs planned for electricity and petroleum before the end of the year.
This is expected to offer long-term benefits that may lead to stability in the electricity and petroleum sectors, as well as attract more investments in the sector.
Mr Chungu wants to run an integrated farming value chain from feedstock production, poultry products, fertiliser manufacturing from the same chicken droppings, to electricity generation to cut production costs.
“Chicol Estates wants to reduce costs of production by engaging in an integrated value chain. We manufacture feedstock, design and fabricate hammer mills from here, use chicken droppings to make fertiliser and now we want to include power generation on the production chain,” he said.