03/03/14: International group challenges Nigerian poultry farmers to adopt new technologies

Satellite image of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

VIV, an international organisation dealing with the promotion of intensive meat and livestock production, challenged Nigerian poultry farmers to be innovative and apply new technologies to poultry farming.

Nathan Nwosu, VIV’s agent in the Nigeria, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of a one-day poultry farming workshop in mid-January 2014.

The workshop was organised in the capital city of Abuja for 300 Nigerians on mechanised poultry farming. It was aimed at equipping Nigerian poultry farmers with new ideas that would help them cope with contemporary challenges and boost production in the sector.
 

Mr Nwosu said the meeting was the first of its kind and Nigeria was chosen because it was selected as the fourth investment destination in 2015.

"We chose Nigeria because it is a very important country. Topics covered included farm management, food processing, animal husbandry, poultry and meat processing.

"Nigerians should be more innovative and apply technologies of doing things like other parts of the world. We intend to educate our local farmers on how to mechanise the sector. Where they do things in a local way, we want to see how we can do it in a more advanced way, so that we can have food security in our country in 2015." he said.

Mr Nwosu said the programme had a target audience of about 250 but noted that more than 300 participants registered. Some of the participants who spoke with NAN commended the organisers, saying the workshop had exposed them to new ideas.
 

Dr Aduku Ochala, a veterinarian, said he came to improve his knowledge and to obtain adequate information on how to raise birds to make more profit. He urged the government to create the enabling environment for the sustainance of such training.

Meanwhile, Mr Akinola Adisa, a poultry and fish farmer, said he came to know about new technologies and how he might enable him to apply them properly.
 

Mr Adisa said he was happy to have acquired more information on proper poultry management. He said farming was more profitable than the much craved white collar jobs and urged the unemployed to take advantage of it.