The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Ghana Poultry Project (GPP) has donated face masks to poultry farmers through its apex body – Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC). The face masks are part of efforts of the USDA-GPP to help curb the spread of the virus in the country.
Donating the face masks at a brief ceremony after a post dialogue meeting between the Food and Drugs Authority, the Veterinary Service Department and poultry farmers, the Chief of Party of the USDA-GPP, Carianne de Boer, said “the mask when used properly can make a big difference in saving lives.”
Receiving the items, the president of WIPVaC, Victoria Norgbey welcomed the gesture and promised that the marks would be shared among its members across the country. “There would be equity in distributing the masks among our members across the country”
The USDA-sponsored Ghana Poultry Project (GPP) aims at increasing targeted sector commercial performance by building coordination between firms, promoting the adoption of quality standards, strengthening business planning and market-penetration strategies, and reinforcing buyer-supplier linkages.
The GPP is being implemented by ACDI/VOCA and TechnoServe, and has been established to boost the competitiveness of the domestic production and processing of poultry meat and eggs. GPP has in the past supported the Apex Body of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC-Apex) to expand women- led poultry production ventures.
The WIPVaC-Apex is an organisation that seeks to bring together all women along the poultry value chain for common interests. Its goal is to create new opportunities and expand the activities of women along the poultry value chain to stimulate development for the benefit of society.
Membership include aggregators of maize and soya, day old chicks suppliers, dealers in poultry inputs such as fishmeal, concentrates, poultry drugs and feed, poultry farmers, egg sellers and distributors of chicken and guinea fowl.
It is an African Union- InterAfrican Bureau of Animal Resource (AU-IBAR) initiative, and a strategic outcome of the Veterinary Governance VET-GOV Project.
Background
Launched in February 2019, the GPP was a sponsored matching grant for the WIPVaC–Apex for a Pullet Out grower Support Programme (POSP), to produce pullets (16 weeks layers) to members in the scheme and reduce the production risk of raising day-old chicks to point of lay as well as increase profitability.
The project was implemented in three regions – Greater Accra, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo. It commenced with the acquisition of 4,500 layer day old chicks with each beneficiary supplied with 500 chicks.
Subsequently, trainings on poultry health/biosecurity, poultry husbandry, group dynamics and team strengthening, accounting marketing and record keeping, as well as egg cleaning were organised for the beneficiaries.
Added to that were networking and mentoring sessions to bring on board prospective farmers interested in the poultry business but did not have the technical knowledge for handling the Day Old Chicks from brooding to point of lay. The response was overwhelming as many people showed interest and the pullets, over-subscribed.
Successes
The flagship of the project was the Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA), a concept to equip members with savings habit to generate their own capital for business.
Again, the implementation of the GPP has made the WIPVaC–Apex visible and served as a membership drive for it.
The training component has tremendously helped to improve skills of the beneficiaries – to produce more efficiently, raise income levels and competitiveness.
They are able to keep proper records for profit calculation. The biosecurity education has helped to reduce risk and improved production.
Beneficiaries have been well equipped with farm management practices which will see an increase in productivity.
Source: Kofi Ahovi//Businessweekghana.com
