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NatnuPreneur scheme gives lifeline to poultry farmers

By Gbenga Akinfenwa (Who was in Ibadan)
24 September 2017   |   9:18 pm
The Amo group of companies, through its natnuPreneur broiler outgrower scheme is giving a new lifeline to poultry farmers and others who have abandoned the business to jack up production of high quality and affordable chicken products.

Day-old-chicks at the Amo Farms, Awe, Oyo State.

• Onboarded 1,156 Farmers, 4,348,640 Birds Off-taken In 3 years
• Produces 1,900,000 DOC Weekly

The Amo group of companies, through its natnuPreneur broiler outgrower scheme is giving a new lifeline to poultry farmers and others who have abandoned the business to jack up production of high quality and affordable chicken products.

The scheme has the potential of providing employment for over two million Nigerians, within the poultry value chain-Feed mills, Hatchery, Logistics and transportation, chicken processing, chicken distribution and retailing-natnuPreneur seller, if well supported.

During the facility tour of the farms under the Amo Byng, Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Limited and natnudO Foods in Oyo State, The Guardian learnt that the natnuPreneur model of job creation and sustained farmer profitability is a perfect example of what agriculture can do for Nigeria, especially in her fight against unemployment and full economic recovery.

According to the scheme’s Data Analyst and Farmer Satisfaction Representative (FSR), Mr. Alaba Yunusa, the vision of natnuPreneur is to create passionate, knowledgeable and wealthy poultry farmers nationwide through sustained profitability, while working to achieve the Federal Government’s food security goal.

Yunusa, who said there is a huge market for chicken production and supply in the country, with only 30 per cent produced locally, and 70 per cent being smuggled products, explained that there is massive opportunity for profitability in poultry farming under natnuPreneur.

“Approximately 1.2 billion birds are consumed yearly in Nigeria. Our assumption is that if 10 per cent of 170 million Nigerians consume six packs of chicken a month, a total of 1.224 billion pieces of chicken would have been consumed in 12 months. From retail perspective, the average price of a chicken is N1, 000. So, if 1,000 is multiplied by 1.224b, it will give us a value of about ₦1,224,000,000,000. Now, the question is, how much of this money is getting to our farmers? This is one question natnuPreneur seeks to give positive answers; we want to ensure that a good chunk of that figure gets into the pocket of poultry farmers through a reliable off-taking arrangement, effective poultry management trainings and capacity building.

“Between 2014 and 2017, the programme has onboarded 1,156 farmers, under different categories and clusters; off taken 4,348,640 birds; and paid out N4, 352,327,119.80 to famers”. This record, he revealed, has drawn the attention of various financial institutions, like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Sterling Bank, Heritage Bank and others, to partner with natnuPreneur and support its famers. Also, because of their well thought out scientific process for broiler farming, natnuPreneur farmers have the ability to do six cycles yearly with mortality rate as low as four per cent.

Chief Operating Officer of the group, Mr. Albert Begerano said the scheme thrived because of its backbones like, Amo farm, which produces about 1,900,000 day old chickens weekly, with broiler chicks being 800,000 of that number. “Amo Byng, which has storage capacity for 500 metric tonnes of feeds and maize, produces between 600-1,000 tonnes of feeds daily. And natnudO foods, where off taken birds are slaughtered and packaged, daily producing 30,000 frozen chickens in the west, 10,000 in the north and 15,000 in the east, totaling 55,000 birds daily, with other facilities for storage and preservation like blast freezers and cold rooms that could take over 600 tonnes of frozen chicken in the west alone.”

Mrs. Remi Tomori of Honeydew Farms, Arulogun, Ibadan, who joined the scheme in October 2014 said her farm with the capacity of 4,000 birds in their fifth week, has only recorded 15 mortality birds till date.

“Through training and regular visitation, we realised an average weight of 1.8 as against the 1.7 minimum agreed weight. We’ve also been able to do between five to seven cycles per year. Before I joined natnuPreneur, I was into layers rearing, but there were too many challenges; pilfering, high mortality, debt, stress and even marketing problems. But natnuPreneur is taking all these risks and stress off us. The scheme is incomparable in terms of returns on investment as I realise more than 50 per cent profit annually,” she added.

The Group Head, Policy & Strategy, Mr. Toromade Francis, told Journalists that the essence of the scheme is to help farmers use fewer resources to get more results and enhance sustained profitability. He added that poultry farmers are now more efficient, as moribund farms have come back to life to life through the initiative.“Our plan is to empower farmers by ensuring they have good returns on their investments and that is the reason we have decentralized the whole process.”

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