The National Broiler Project Directorate operating under the Ministry of Special Initiatives has targeted the production of 18 million birds under the Nkoko Nketenkete Project this year.
That, it said, was possible with the participation of local partners, particularly the major farms.
The directorate, it said, was working with all the big farms, including Aglow Farms, Darko Farms and Spotless Farms, which produced in large volumes in addition to about 2,000 outgrowers.
The National Coordinator of the National Broiler Project Directorate, Kelvi Ocran, disclosed this when he visited Aglow Farms Limited Processing Plant at Gomoa Potsin in the Central Region yesterday.
It was to familiarise himself with the processing of the birds under the Nkoko Nketenkete Project.
Employment
Mr Ocran said under the project, more than 300,000 jobs were expected to be created when the project was scaled up, and envisaged 1,000 employments in the Gomoa area alone.
“In just the Gomoa area alone, we are envisaging over 1,000 employment. It’s more than 300,000 jobs that will be created; direct and indirect jobs from this initiative,” he said.
Mr Ocran said he was impressed with the processing, stating that it had been done according to international standards.
“I was happy and excited that we’ve been able to achieve this,” he said, stressing that he remained excited for the fact that the project had seen the light of day.
Staff of Aglow Farms Limited preparing some of the birds for processing
He said Aglow Farms Limited and others, including Darko Farms, would enable the nation to scale up production and eventually reap maximum benefits from the promising intervention.
Aglow, he said, employed almost about 200 people during the production cycle.
“However, looking at what we want to do, we’re envisioning about 600 workers per cycle, and then we’re also looking to move into a 24-hour shift,” he said.
Mr Ocran said there was an advanced conversation with management of Aglow Farms to change the production to a 24-hour cycle.
The vision, he said, was to have 18 million birds by the close of the year.
Mr Ocran said about 50,000 birds had been processed so far this year, and by projection it was possible to achieve the 18 million by the end of 2026.
The project, he said, had shown that it could be done with the support of local partners.
“So, the pilot project has gone through many phases. The first phase was the feed.
We had to check the feed with seven companies to see which feed would best fit the production scheme.
“We did a feed trial for about seven weeks, and after the feed trial, we went straight into production. After production — that’s about seven weeks of production — we had to do the processing, and this is what we have,” he said.
Facility
Mr Ocran said with the facility undertaking 100,000 birds per week, when it would start the three-shift system under a 24-hour cycle, that should translate to about 300,000 birds per week.
Darko Farms and others, he said, would also be producing, “which tells you that we should be producing almost about a million birds per production cycle”.
The Business Controller of Aglow Farms Limited, Nana Nketia Boakye, said the Nkoko Nketenkete programme would enable the farm to run three shifts and triple its employment work base.
Already, he said, his outfit had revived about 20 outgrowers, and that “we’re excited to have this programme on board”.
Project
Last year, President John Dramani Mahama launched the “Nkoko Nketenkete” Household and Backyard Poultry Production Initiative, a national programme that will distribute three million birds to about 60,000 households across all 276 constituencies.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh