Poultry farmers urged on quality feeds, hygiene

Poultry farmers have been urged to ensure they give their birds quality feeds and maintain hygiene in the chicken houses to boost production. Dr Christine Kanyandekwe, the head of animal resources department at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) gave the remarks yesterday while opening a three-day workshop on poultry industry in Rwanda. “Statistics show that we have made a good step forward in terms of poultry production but still have a big gap between the current production and the targets. To boost production, poultry farmers need to feed their hens with quality feeds that comply with standards, ensure hygiene in hen houses and keep their hens vaccinated as required by veterinarians,” Kanyandekwe said. Odette Kagoyire, a poultry farmer in Bugesera cited unstable prices of animal feeds prices among the biggest challenges faced by poultry farmers. She said, “There is no stable price for animal feeds. Prices are always increasing whereas the price for poultry products remains stable which leads to losses. We wish the Government would waive taxes on animal feeds so that the industry can attract more investors to allow us get the feeds cheaply.” There are four main factories specialising in feeds manufacturing in Rwanda which accounts for 40 per cent of the total feeds used by poultry farmers in the country. The other 60 per cent, according to officials is made by non-specialised plants or made on farms, whose quality one can never be sure of. Christine Nyiransabimana, another poultry farmer based in Kicukiro District said that lack of enough hatcheries also is still a challenge for poultry farmers. “We don’t have enough hatcheries which forces us to import chicks from abroad. This leads to an increase in not only the price but also the mortality rate of the chicks because of the long distance they have to make,” she said. She said that locally, one cannot get any order above 2,000 chicks at any given time from local hatcheries. Currently, Rwanda produces over 16,000 tonnes of poultry meat and 6,973 tons of eggs per annum as of 2014, according to statistics from RAB. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Poultry farmers urged on quality feeds, hygiene