BATN foundation empowers poultry farmers to scale agriculture in Lagos

Poultry farmers in Lagos have received productive assets to strengthen and expand their businesses as the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) Foundation deepens its support for agricultural enterprise development through its Chicks to Plate Project.
 The Foundation provided each farmer with a three-tier battery cage, point-of-lay birds, bags of feed and medications at the recently concluded Lagos World Food Day celebration at the Police College, Ikeja.
 
The 40 beneficiaries were selected from over 200 prospective and practising poultry farmers trained under Chicks to Plate programe, a partnership between BATN Foundation and the Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (LSADA).
  The programme equipped participating farmers with practical knowledge in modern poultry production, farm management, biosecurity and agribusiness development.
  
The initiative also supports Lagos State’s broader drive to strengthen local food production and agricultural value chains. By improving the productive capacity of poultry farmers, Chicks to Plate is positioned to support increased poultry production while expanding income and livelihood opportunities for participating farmers.
  Speaking on the intervention, General Manager of BATN Foundation, Oludare Odusanya, said the initiative reflects the Foundation’s approach to turning agricultural knowledge into sustainable enterprise opportunities.
  
“Training creates knowledge, but farmers also need the right tools to translate that knowledge into productive and sustainable businesses. Through Chicks to Plate, we are complementing the capacity built among 200 poultry farmers with targeted enterprise support for 40 selected layer farmers, enabling them to strengthen their operations and create a pathway for sustainable growth,” he said.
 Odusanya said the Chicks to Plate Project builds on the Foundation’s longstanding agricultural partnership with the Lagos State Government.
 
Beginning with the Fingerlings to Fork programme in 2018, he said the partnership trained and empowered 1,436 fish farmers between 2018 and 2025 in modern aquaculture, processing, packaging, value addition, export readiness and farm management.
 He said beneficiaries also received productive assets including fish-smoking kilns and tarpaulin ponds.
 
According to him, the expansion from aquaculture into poultry production reinforced BATN Foundation’s broader approach to agricultural development: combining technical capacity, productive assets and enterprise support to help farmers build stronger and more commercially sustainable businesses.
  “Through Chicks to Plate, the Foundation and the Lagos State Government are extending that approach into the poultry value chain, supporting farmers to move from knowledge to production and from production towards sustainable agricultural enterprises,” he added.