Demba
Touray, the poultry manager working with Animal Health and Production Services
at Abuko responsible for the management of the poultry unit, has described
poultry production as a viable venture, noting that poultry production needs
the involvement of the youth to cut down the importation of chicken in this
country.
He made this statement in an interview with this reporter in his office at Abuko on Thursday.
He noted that the poultry production centre started operating twenty years ago, and a lot of farmers and students from the university have benefited from training offered at the centre by upgrading their capacity on poultry production and management.
He then went on to lament the importance attach to poultry production, saying engaging in this venture can earn an individual substantial revenue, food, livelihoodprotein, among other sources of income generation .
He said poultry production is something everybody needs to engage in since it is a venture that can develop the country.
Talking about the issue of banning of importation of chicken into the country, Mr Touray applauded the move, saying the banning of its importation into the country is geared towards encouraging the youth to venture into the poultry production, which is a more preferable and productive venture for them.
He noted that it is good to encourage the youth to engage in poultry production than to encourage the importation of chicken in the country.
He said the amount of layers they have per year is about sixty-five to seventy-five thousand of layers.
He also revealed that they have a project called the cockerel exchange programme food and agricultural organization funded 2013/1500 cockerels for the disaster relief communities 2010/2011 which started June 2013.
He added that the centre received about fifteen thousand cocks from FAO and the project was funded by Belgian SFERA.
He described the project as a very mighty project, which was geared towards assisting the farmers in the improvement of their poultry productivity.
Mr Touray further said the department of agriculture, the service provider for the said project and animal health and production services, provided the technical services for the project signed on behalf of the department of agriculture on 7 May 2013 by the director general of agriculture and based on the terms of reference 2.1 that the brooding of the day old chicks will be the responsibility of the services provider from 3-6 weeks.
He further noted that the national cockerel exchange programme is geared towards genetic improvement of the rural chicken in the disaster hard-hit districts in the country.
He further called on the government to encourage the youth to venture into poultry production which has a great impact on their livelihood and an easy way of earning them a better and fast income generating activity.
He said the youth should see poultry production as one of the most productive ventures in improving their livelihood.
