Migori County poultry farmers will benefit from free training workshops that aim to equip them on poultry rearing and vaccination.
Speaking at a hotel in Migori town, Mr. Charles Nyaanga the Director for Livestock Migori County stated that the workshops will ensure that poultry farmers are back on their feet after a difficult year.
Nyaanga said that many poultry farmers lost their poultry and livestock during the floods that caused havoc late last year. Covid-19 pandemic was also another challenge that forced the poultry farmers to abandon the enterprise due to harsh economic times.
The official stated that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that is sponsored by the United Nations aims to support and supplement income of poultry farmers to improve household income.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation has come up with the Farmers Feed School Business Model that aims to train technical staff and farmers on the practical issues in poultry farming and capacity building.
The FAO will also coordinate all poultry stakeholders to ensure a direct linkage to market accessibility. The training will also focus on poultry production from sustenance poultry rearing to a commercial one through value chain addition. FAO consultants will be tasked with doing baseline on issues of status of poultry in the county. Nyaanga said that the training will also feature feed productions to ensure poultry farmers manufacture their own locally produced feeds instead of buying the commercial ones that are quite expensive.
Migori County Secretary for Agriculture Mr. Valentine Ogongo highlighted that through Food and Agriculture Organisation training the poultry farmers will be given support on commercialization of chicken value chain.
He said that FAO will assist farmers to be economically empowered especially after the harsh conditions of floods and Covid-19 that affected many businesses in the county.
“Our poultry farmers do poultry farming on a small scale with unstructured markets. The Food and Agriculture Organisation in partnership with the county government and other stakeholders are in top gear to ensure that we commercialize the poultry enterprise to benefit our farmers,” stated Ogongo.
With the help of the County government, Ogongo said that FAO will help in the improvement of poultry breeds through insemination which has been the biggest problem. He also noted that the chicken slaughter house that was commissioned by the county government in Suna West will soon be in operation to help boost the economic standards of local poultry farmers.
He acknowledged that many people are shifting from red to white meat due to health reasons. “Migori has a potential of producing more than 4 million chickens annually from 154,000 households and the number can be increased if our farmers are well trained on poultry farming and vaccination,” said Ogongo.
Mr. David Magogo the Agribusiness Officer for FAO encouraged the youth, women and people living with disabilities to form poultry groups in order to get the grants that will help them improve their livelihood.
Apart from Food and Agriculture Organisation, poultry farming in Migori is also being supported by other partners like the National Agricultural and Rural Inclusive Growth Projects (NARIGP), Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP), The Kenya Crops Dairy Marking System Development (KCDMSD) and Sakwa Cooperatives among others.
By Geoffrey Makokha
