POULTRY FARMERS TRAINED IN BROODING

Managers and workers from 10 selected poultry farms in the Ashanti region have undergone three-days of Poultry Foundation capacity training to improve on their production. 

They were taken though critical areas of brooding such as quality day old chicks, litter management, poultry diseases, drugs and vaccines, record keeping, bio-security in poultry premises as well as relationship between brooding of day-old chicks and later performance of layer. 

The training was organized by Ghana Poultry Project with financial support by the United States Department for Agriculture.

 The Deputy Director of the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Anthony Akunzole, who was the Facilitator, blamed expensive nature of poultry products such as eggs and chicken in Ghana mainly on the high cost of production compared with imported products. 

This is basically due to the inadequate production technical know-how among the poultry farmers. 

Dr. Akunzole noted that the ideal situation is for the farmers to maximize production with less feed by cutting down waste in feeding.

 The Veterinary expert entreated the farmers to always ensure proper breeding of the birds so as to avoid cannibalism, small egg sizes and meat. 

Additionally, they must pay particular attention to vaccine administration to reduce the incidences of poultry diseases such as coccidiosis, Newcastle, yoke sac infection and fowl pox. 

The Value Chain Leader of the Ghana Poultry Project, Kwaku Tuono Bombasa, said the project said which was began last year, will last for five years with the ultimate goal of empowering poultry farmers and all along the value chain to increase their level of production to capture about 25 percent of the local market which now stands at about five per cent. 

He said officials of the Ghana Poultry Project will pay unannounced visit to the farms of participants of the training programme to find out whether or not they are applying the knowledge acquired.