Beneficiaries of the Ogun State Broiler Project’s second cycle, most of whom are youths, have concluded arrangements to sell 54,000 broiler birds through an offtake agreement.
While delivering his speech during the event at the Odeda Farm Institute, Commissioner for Agriculture Adeola Odedina explained that the project was set up to improve the poultry value chain, create jobs and empower youths in the state.
The Ogun State government launched the pilot project in December 2019 with 54 youths as pioneers, and later announced the commencement of its second phase in March.
Ogun Motivates Youths to Boost Agricultural Production
The sale for the second phase, which included the offtake of 54,000 chickens raised by the 54 youths over six weeks, was officially closed at the Odeda Farm Institute, in Ogun State
The project was executed by the state government in collaboration with offtaker Amobyn Farms in order to facilitate agricultural industrialization in Ogun, the country’s foremost state in the production of poultry products.
Bringing on Amobyn as an off-taker resolved problems relating to a poor market and an imbalance in power relations with input suppliers and chicken buyers, which had reduced poultry farmers to “‘price- takers’” and “‘money- recyclers.” These difficulties are considered to be reasons for the country’s weak poultry sector.
Over 55,000 Poultry Capacity Launched in Abia State
The commissioner noted that the project delivered 110 tons of poultry meat to the off-taker in the first cycle, thereby reducing the importation of poultry products and placing the state at the vanguard of poultry meat production in Nigeria.
He explained further that the 54 pilot youths reared 1,000 broilers each during the first cycle of the project; achieved an average weight of 1.9 kilograms per broiler within (42 days) of production; and made an average profit of N140,000, all with a mortality rate of less than 3 per cent.
