With more demands for good stocks to produce day old chicks, the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) has gathered stakeholders to discuss new standards in the hatchery and breeding sector, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Poultry is one of the largest subsectors in agriculture. It has created jobs, empowered small farmers and boosted food security.
Faced with the growing demand for eggs and poultry meat, the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) gathered stakeholders in Ibadan to discuss the new standards for operators of hatcheries and producers of day old chicks. The objective was to intimate them on the expectations of the government towards establishing an environment that would support world-class poultry breeding and boost production.
The forum allowed the participants to obtain information on the various aspects of poultry production such as biology and physiology of birds, breeding and rearing systems, nutrition, health, hygiene and food security, environmental impact and product quality.
At the forum, stakeholders expressed the need to certify more producers of pure lines and grandparent stocks of poultry that will be subject to regulation by the government.
One of them was Managing Director, Rostal Resources Limited, Taiwo Adeoye. He described poultry producers as the backbone of the agriculture sector. Despite the challenges, he said farmers had continued to produce high-quality products and keep the industry competitive and resilient.
To help poultry and egg producers become more competitive, Adeoye, who chaired the occasion, said the industry needed regulations to ensure breeders and hatcheries produce the highest quality day old chicks.
He indicated that the industry was facing challenges which were not helping to enhance performance and profitability. While feed and other issues were critical, according to him, the quality of day old chicks was important to achieving maximum broiler performance.
According to him, improvement in poultry production was one of the most promising options for Nigerians to gain affordable protein.
For the industry, however, he noted that it has not been good news with so many farms closing following rising costs of feed. He said farmers were battling with high cost of procuring day-old chicks and feeds.
Notwithstanding, he noted that the potential in the industry was immense as the sector provides employment to more than 70,000 people.
The Head of Inspection, Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Olufemi Atunbi, said the institute was committed to working with partners to help farmers manage risk.
According to him, the institute envisions a stronger sector that supports jobs creation.
For him, a successful poultry business revolves around good chicks raise for meat and bred for table eggs.
He noted that providing small-scale producers with better quality chicks would make poultry production more sustainable.
He added that increasing small-scale poultry producers’ access to healthy day-old-chicks, will enable them to reduce their production costs, expand their businesses and substantially increase their profit margins.
For the industry to grow, Atunbi suggested that farmers must use good quality parent stocks for the production of day old clicks.
While Nigeria is making efforts to achieve self-sufficient in poultry production, Atunbi noted that there was the need to improve the quality of parent stock to meet international standards.
Atunbi said production of parent stock is a highly specialised and resource-intensive business. According to him, hatchery owners import the parent flocks as day old chicks from the primary breeders abroad. The birds, he explained, were kept in breeding farms which are then used in hatcheries for producing commercial broiler or layer chicks.
While the imported breeding stock has given the chicken meat industry access to better poultry strains, Atunbi said it was time for the stakeholders to welcome technology to advance and improve breeding practices, adding that the institute support technology transfer ecosystem to support innovation adoption in the poultry industry.
To this effect, he maintained that the institute was determined to promote an industry where poultry farmers could benefit from good parent stock produced from world-class breeding facilities.
With the regulations taking place, Atunbi told The Nation, that breeding farms were expected to follow guidelines on hatchery management.
To achieve certification, he said the farms must show competencies and produce records on managing bird health, maintaining the correct composition and quantity of feed.
He said the institute wants to ensure that only certified farms are involved in the production of poultry breeds.
He pledged the readiness of the institute to collaborate with enterprises to promote the application of breeding technologies.
He explained that if the industry must succeed, there must be certification of poultry breeders to ensure they supply only high value stock for poultry meat.
According to him, it is not going to be business as usual for producers supplying day-old chicks. He added that the institute wants to ensure producers guarantee birds transported are prepared to arrive their destinations at the peak of physical condition.
The Deputy Director/ Head of Regulatory Affairs, NIAS, Njoaguani Harry Ifeanyi, said for poultry breeding farms the safe transportation of grandparent stock was critical if the operators must prevent losses can be significant.
According to him, the well-being and quality of chicks could compromise by a very weak link in the transportation logistics chain.
In moving chicks, he stressed that not only must the temperature be coordinated there must be the necessary ventilation to guarantee airflow in any condition.
Ifeanyi explained that hatcheries occupy a central position between breeder farms and poultry production houses.
He reiterated that the institute is taking measures to ensure breeder farms and hatcheries implement measures to prevent risk of illness through contamination of chickens with E. coli.
According to Ifeanyi, one of the key elements of successful farm management is maintaining good farm biosecurity.
Enforcing biosecurity procedures, he noted, helps to keep birds healthy by reducing the chance of getting diseases.
He stressed that good hatchery hygiene was important to ensure that the chicks do not pick up infection and are healthy and vigorous on release.
To meet this high demand for poultry meat, Head Southwest Zone ,NIAS, Prince Ogundipe Adetokunbo, said hatcheries needed to better parent stocks to maximise chick production, and this entails not only the incubation of more fertile eggs.
According to him, hatcheries and breeder farms need to achieve high production efficiency in a sustainable manner.
To make poultry profitability, he said producers must be able to achieve high survival rates under any conditions.
The General Manager Sales& Operations, Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Limited, Owati Adebola, believes in the good intentions of government and the private sector.
According to him, the potential for transformation, is huge and exciting. Adebola said regulations were welcomed to ensure quality standards are complied with across the industry.
He said the regulations would help to encourage the establishment of certified hatcheries to meet the increasing production demands of day-old chicks across the country.
The Chairman, Day Old Chicks Merchants Association of Nigeria (DOCMAN), Olaiya Ogunmoyela, reiterated that his members were ready to comply with rules that will keep the industry safe and stabilised.
He stressed however that the industry was going a number of challenges and needed the support of the various tiers of government.
In related development Chi Farms Limited, a member of the TGI Group and a leading agribusiness company in Nigeria, has concluded the expansion plan of its 36 million day-old chicks yearly hatchery production capacity at Ajanla Farms, Ibadan to 44 million day-old-chicks.
“Expanding our operations will enable us to have better control, supervision, and most importantly sustain our quality standards while we meet the continuously growing demands from customers,” said Ananda Raj, business head –poultry marketing and sales, Chi Farms.
Raj said the expansion was necessary to meet the increasing production demands of day-old chicks across the country.
Also, the Managing Director, Chi Farms, Tunji Olaitan, said there were plans for further expansions, noting that it is to respond adequately not only in terms of day-old-chick volume but also delivering premium quality offerings to the Nigerian poultry industry.
“By next year, we will have an additional complement of eight setters, thus increasing the operational capacity from 44 million day-old chicks per year to 52 million chicks,” Olaitan said.
According to him, these strategic investments are to ensure that Chi Farms remains the market leader with premium quality products and pacesetting in new technologies integration in the industry.
Some of the innovations in the pipeline for Chi Farms include infrared break treatment machine (PSP), which offers stress-free and precision de-beaking options with real-time value addition.
The farm is also accelerating housing modification projects and the conversion of naturally ventilated poultry houses to environmentally controlled houses.
In another development, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has forecast that global chicken meat production by increase by two per cent next year to a record 100.9 million tonnes.
According to it, major producers such as Brazil, China, and the United States will record significant growth . Despite relatively high feed prices squeezing profitability globally, USDA sees expansion spurred by robust demand as consumers seek low-cost animal protein.
Growth in Brazil,it noted will be driven by both global demand and domestic consumption as household budgets are strained, while that China production will rebound as large white feather broiler operations utilize production capacity from new facilities.
Also, it sees improved economic outlook, easing COVID-related production problems, and strong domestic and foreign demand driving Thailand output higher.
According to it, global exports will rise by three per cent next year to a record 13.3 million tonnes.
Brazil, which is still the world’s leading exporter will account for over one-third of the growth as it is well-positioned to gain from growing EU and United Kingdom (UK) demand.
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