Kebba Ansu Manneh
Dr. Jarra Jagne, a leading Gambian veterinarian and specialist in poultry diseases has disclosed that basic infrastructures and feeding remain the biggest challenge to poultry farming in the Gambia.
Dr. Jagne who is currently working at Cornell University in the United States of America (USA) made the observation at the official opening of a three-day training of twenty-five (25) poultry farmers held at the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) at Abuko on Monday 9th January 2022.
According to her, many Gambians are enthusiastic about starting poultry farming but lack the requisite skills, knowledge, and capital to venture, adding that poultry farmers must possess vast knowledge of nutrition and diseases in order to become successful in poultry farming.
“I just feel bad that a lot of people are just losing their money just because they don’t have the necessary knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge that is going to impact the farmers during this training,” Dr. Jarra Jagne during the opening of the training.
She added: “There are a lot of people who are interested in poultry with a lot of enthusiasm but we still don’t have basic infrastructures for a good poultry industry, so a lot of poultry coming into the country are imported from the USA and Brazil. We (poultry farmers) are not yet at the point where we can ask the government to stop the importation of poultry because the local people are not producing enough.
The Leading Gambian Veterinarian continued to observe that quality feed and feed processing plants are also among the challenges poultry farmers go through in the country and was quick to add that Gambia needs poultry feed processing plants as a driving force for poultry production in the country.
Dr. Jagne further observed that poultry breeds imported into the country from USA and Europe could better be substituted with breeds that are more adaptable to our local climate.
However, she acknowledged the challenges confronting local poultry farmers amidst the importation of frozen chicken into the country that is cheaper in terms of pricing, noting that poultry farmers can also diversify the market through the production of guinea fowl.
Dr. Kebba Daffeh, a private consultant partnering with Dr. Jarra Jagne described the capacity building which is anchored on ‘Strengthening the poultry value chain in The Gambia’ as very important to the development of the poultry industry in the country.
According to him, the training is part of the MSDG programme under the Diaspora Development Grant (DDG) meant to build the capacity of twenty-five poultry farmers and students.
Dr. Daffeh also observed that the problem with poultry farming in the country is the lack of capacity as many Gambians entering into the poultry industry lack technical capacity but was optimistic that training will close that capacity gap.
He added that the training will Accord both students and poultry farmers a new list of knowledge in many areas such as postmortem and pathology, and bio-security (keeping to keep birds safe and away from disease).
The Local Consultant for the training continues to note that participants will be trained on the business aspect of poultry and how they can manage and make their businesses profitable.