INVESTING IN POULTRY

Despite the challenges that are often associated with poultry, a small group of farmers in Fulabantang in the Central River Region of the Gambia are determined to make a mark in the business of rearing chickens and selling eggs.

The project is being managed by some influential members of the community, and so far according to Francis Baldeh, the eggs are selling like hot cakes. He explained that the price tag for an egg is D3.OO while, shop keepers sell it for D5.00.

Apart from the business of selling and maintaining the health of the chickens, Francis and his colleagues have to work on a daily basis to ensure the single house where the chickens are kept is clean and tidy.

Of course, they need to expand the structures so that the village’s single poultry project will serve other communities and if possible spur others to take up the initiative. But the high cost of maintaining poultry is scaring others, for example fishermen like Dembaru told me he has been contemplating of poultry but when he was told the high cost of feeding and maintaining the chickens, he put the idea on hold.

Dembaru may not be the only one in such situations, even rice farmers have attempted to invest in poultry but somehow they have changed their minds.

‘I would not be able to have people to take care of the chickens, and sell the eggs, even if I were to have the people, where am I going to get the money to pay them for the services they are rendering?’ said Gibel, who has been inspired by the Village’s poultry project.

Even for Francis, there are times when maintaining the chickens become a daunting challenge, especially when he has couple of other things to carry out. For instance, he would like to have more people come on board but as a small project, there isn’t enough money coming to pay for more people.

A good number of farmers in the country rear chickens in their backyards but what discourage them from taking part in a big time poultry is the outbreak of diseases and secondly, lack of capital or perhaps technical know-how is also contributing factor.