Under its FarmSkill label, Namfarmers organised and hosted a poultry info day at Chicco`s egg farm. The FarmSkill label is a division under Namfarmers that offers practical trainings to farmers, workshops and organizing farmers’ information session days.
Some of its practical trainings and services includes; agriculture products marketing, crop production, financial management, implements and infrastructure maintenance, livestock husbandry, livestock nutrition and health, livestock production and management, poultry training, rangeland improvement and water management.
All these trainings and services are done to equip farmers to grow successful and sustainable agribusiness.
In partnership with; Chicco`s eggs farm and Nutrifeeds, the poultry info day was hosted under the theme: “Better understanding the needs of poultry farmers and advancing the sector ahead”.
The poultry info day was organised to inspire, stimulate and empower individuals to start their own poultry enterprises.
The info day attracted more than 60 participants, aspiring poultry farmers and small-scale poultry farmers that were eager to up their game in poultry farming.
During the info day, Toivo Thomas, owner and management of Chicco`s eggs farm gave a proper lesson to the participants on the necessary considerations they should consider before venturing into poultry farming. Among the variety of consideration, he cautioned the participants to do their research very well and to decide of which poultry area they would want to farm with, whether it should be broilers, layers or traditional free-ranging.
The location of where one will be situated and the market was also some of the items that was emphasized. “You want to be in a location that is near your suppliers, such as your feed supplier to avoid more of logistical expenses” says Toivo.
Francois Jones, a technician and representative from Nutrifeeds spoke on the critical role that the nutritional aspects of chickens plays among poultry farmers. According to Jones; combined together, feed intake and the medicinal needs of chickens’ accounts to about 80% of the input cost. He further revealed that although these costs are high, they should not be ignored.
Once feed and the medicinal needs of the chickens are tampered with, they will affect the production performance of the chicken. Jones also emphasized that it is vital for poultry farmers to ensure that the temperature of the chickens are well maintained as this can also affect production.
Poultry is one of the sector within the Agri industry that has great potential and once tapped right, it can significantly contribute to the economy of the country in term of income generation and social welfare of the people.