2015 : poultry farming project - RDC
KINDU POULTRY FARMING PROJECT – MANIEMA PROVINCE IN DRC
 |
 |
“eggs and chicken for Kindu”
In Kindu, like elsewhere in Maniema, shortages affect poultry products market.
Local production is very low, as it comes from a few family farms; animals are wandering, which induces important losses. For the largest part, chickens consumed in Kindu are deep frozen chickens coming by plane from Kinshasa. Eggs come from Goma by air. Prices are high: 0,33 $ to 0,54 $ per egg, 12 $ to 21 $ per chicken (according to weight). These are luxury products, not accessible to population.
Since 2013, MA.N.I.EMA France association initiated the“Eggs and chicken for Kindu” project
with the objective of reducing eggs and chickens shortage in Kindu city and Maniema province. Since then, I assist the association for this project, in the framework of a convention between AVe and MA.N.I.E.MA France.
At the beginning of 2015, the association has found that creating a middle-size poultry farm in Kindu was too expensive and hardly feasible. From now on, it favours another strategy. It consists in giving the present and future households owning chickens, the means to develop local eggs and chickens production, by mobilizing many producers on small family farms.
• General objective of the project is to “succeed in establishing a real avian sector in Kindu”
To achieve this, the first step consists in creating a poultry cooperative with households possessing poultry, (planned in Spring 2016); the second step will consist in establishing a poultry production unit (intended in Summer 2016).
• The phase of players’ mobilization in order to create a poultry cooperative has started since the beginning of July 2015. It includes three components:
- approaching households owning poultry,
- demonstration parcels for corn (3 ha) and soybean (1 ha), basic constituents of poultry feed,
- press conferences to build awareness among the whole population.
In December 2015, a very positive assessment of the ongoing effort can be made,
what was planned has been carried out for all three components. There is no budgetary drift. The impact of completed actions is very positive: demonstration parcels show that higher yields than usually are obtained in Kindu, simply by modifying two practices: planting only one crop per parcel and sowing seeds in line every 20 cm. Out of 350 households owning poultry who were approached, 300 (85%) are prepared to join the cooperative. A first press conference took place just before Christmas.
Next stage will be the implementation of the poultry farm unit
which will includes a brooding area, a feed plant, a veterinary pharmacy and a training room; the latter will provide poultry producers the means to develop, namely: improved breed chicks, feeding stuff, specific medicines as well as poultry farming training courses.
Presently the association is taking a great deal of initiatives to find funding
for the poultry farm. Today, it is short of 60 000 $ out of a total of 110 000 $.
Funding is sought from different directions: European funders, cooperation bodies already present in DRC, private companies of Maniema province...
When the poultry farm unit will become operational (June 2017),
M.A.N.I.E.MA France association will sell it for one symbolic Franc to the agricultural cooperative which will have been created. From this moment on, the agricultural cooperative will be the one taking control of the poultry farm unit operation. This will be the end of the poultry farm project, as M.A.N.I.E.MA France will have established a genuine avian sector in Kindu.