The result of seven years research (Farmsured Technology) on the improvement of processing, operation and production in poultry business in Nigeria especially in the aspects of protection of day-old chicks and counterfeiting and adulteration of agricultural inputs has been launched by a technology driven company, Agribusiness Dynamics Technology Limited in collaboration with the National Institute of Animal Science and the Oyo State government.
The poultry technology initiative was unveiled on Thursday in the presence of major stakeholders and players across poultry business in Nigeria at Mahogany Hotel and Suites, Jericho, Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
Addressing the operators of poultry business in Nigeria during the unveiling, Mr. Ayooluwa Okediji, who is the brain behind the initiative, Farmsured Technology and Chief Executive Officer of AgDyna said that the purpose is to standardize the operation poultry business in Nigeria by addressing the counterfeit and adulteration of agricultural inputs.
He stated that Farmsured Technology will help the poultry business operators especially those that are operating at micro level to improve the quality level of their production which has been a delaying factor in having access to loan facility from the bank.
Okediji added that the technology will also address quality challenges in the production of day-old chicks, poultry feeds, seeds, fertilizers among others.
“We have been working on this project for over seven years to make sure we can address issues of counterfeiting and adulteration of agricultural inputs, this is one of the reasons small holder farmers are very poor. They don’t have access to quality inputs and as a result of this; banks will not release loans to them because they have poor yields. And in most cases, lack of quality inputs is not just limited to day old chicks, it involves poultry feeds, seeds, fertilizers and anything you can think of.
“So agricultural inputs is 70% of any production that you want to do, and when you borrowed money from a bank and you’re not able to get good yields as a result of poor inputs, automatically that becomes a debt, and this is one of the reasons why small hold farmers are push down on poverty line and that is why agriculture is not interesting to most of our people. I have a personal story to this because my parents were farmers and I understand what we faced while I was growing up, so this is exactly where the passion came from to be able to make sure that we can solve this major menace that is facing the industry. Ayooluwa said.
While speaking, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, (NIAS), Prof. Eustace Iyayi, disclosed that the institute collaborated with Agroinfotech and other partners to ensure that we minimize quackery in the day old chicks sub sector and reduce it to the nearest minimum.
“if we can completely eliminate it, such that we are able to standardize operation alongside axis of poultry value chain and make sure that those who are involved are also help to standardize their little businesses while the majority of those that they have been adulterating their products are also get the value for the money they put into their businesses, so farmsured is a technology, is a tracking and traceability technology in the day old chicks market chain value to help remove quackery or reduce it to the minimum level.”
In his submission, the representative of Oyo State government and Executive Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr. Debo Akande, who was represented by Dr. Tunde Amole, said that the poultry technology initiative will assist farmers to achieve positive results in their animal productions.
He noted that the Farmsured Technology has been designed in such a way that there is traceability of every input of day old chicks production in the poultry sector.
“There is no doubt this initiative will bring more succour to the farmers in the state. This will bring a great impact for the small holder farmers. For they will be able to source for resources in cheaper, traceable ways and only if you are rest assured that all your inputs are of quality standards that when you can go to the market with your animals and smile back home because there is no doubt that all your animals will be of great products.
Akande said that Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde is working tirelessly and will continue in his efforts to ensure an enabling environment and sustain it for farmers to thrive in their businesses.
“We have a lot of partners and I want to use this opportunity to say that this innovation is embraced by this present government through Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency, (OYSADA) which Dr. Debo Akande is leading, we have been really pushing out a lot of things to make sure that Oyo State framers are the first to benefit from this initiative, we have started the project and presently with 3,300 youths that were trained in Nasarawa, I was there eleven times and I can assure you that we have three hundred youths in class, so 3,300 youths are currently being unbundled and a lot of small holder farmers. Just three days ago I was in Fashola Farm in Oyo where we unveiled under the NCARES project because this technology is actually part of what we are using in that project so, Oyo State government is one of the major supporters of this innovation, I should also mention the Nigerian Institute of Animal science, who’s actually the regulator for animal husbandry factors in Nigeria and they are also fully with us on this program, a lot of them like ILRI and host of other companies,” Akande said.
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