Ogun empowers poultry farmers with 54,000 broilers

     

Ogun State Government says it has commenced the second phase of its broiler project in order to reduce dependency on foreign poultry products and improve the socio-economic development of the state.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Adeola Odedina, made this known during an inspection tour of a farm institute in the Odeda Local Government Area of the state, a statement said.

He said 54 beneficiaries were empowered with 1,000 day-old broiler chicks each, in the first phase of the project.

He said, “We have been very successful in the first phase of this project. We raised young farmers with 54,000 birds and they made an average profit of N130,000 each within six weeks of production.

“In this second round of production, average of N170,000 to N200,000 profit is being projected per beneficiary based on their experience.

“It is also worthy of note that we have been very successful in raising young people as a pilot in stimulating the interest of other youths in agriculture.”

Addressing journalists at the institute, the Director of Livestock, Broiler Project, Mr Tunde Adebiyi, explained that this cycle of production would produce over 110,000kg of broiler meat in the next six weeks, which he said would attract more youths to the scheme.

“Arrangements are ongoing to replicate this project across the 20 local government areas of the state. The success of this pilot broiler project is already attracting youths into the project. The 54 pilot youths will also serve as ‘train the trainer’ for the 9,000 youths, already registered for the extension of the Ogun broiler project in the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said.

Meanwhile, as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, Unilever Nigeria donated packets of lifebuoy soaps to the state through the Office of the Wife of the Governor, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun.

Receiving the soaps, Abiodun represented by a physician from the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Dr Bolanle Adefuye, said the donation would aid hand washing among other measures necessary to abate the spread of the disease.

She said the donated items would be distributed across the three senatorial districts of the state to ensure people were not short of hand washing soap and further promote personal hygiene among the citizenry.

Abiodun also highlighted other preventive measures as keeping social distance; not picking the mouth or nostrils; coughing and sneezing into the elbow; advising people to strictly adhere to government’s regulations and maintaining clean environment.

The Director, Corporate Affairs and Sustainable Business, Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Mrs Soromidayo George, while presenting the donated soaps, commended government’s responsiveness to the pandemic, saying it was necessary to support the state in its efforts to contain the spread of the disease.