Talking from an African perspective, agriculture remains the backbone of most African economies, it
entails planting crops and rearing animals either for home consumption or for commercial
purposes.
With the advent of technology, things look a little bit more different they now include
improved seeds for planting and new breed animal species for rearing, the intervention of Agribusiness
has valorized more light into the agricultural sector especially dealing with the rearing of animals
commonly called poultry.
Growing up poultry was considered a very dirty and daunting task with very
little persons finding interest in it, and animals like sheep, goats, pigs, fowl, rabbits, snails just to name a
few were those been reared at very small scales.
Poultry is the rearing of animals ( snails, goats, rabbits, fowl) on a commercial scale. This is a daunting yet very profitable business if properly managed and monitored. But it may interest you to know that the growth in the agricultural sector has been quite constant.
The most common poultry farms are those for chicken, this is the most common and widespread poultry
farm found in Africa, due to its popularity, easy management, and short term growth, added to the
increasing demand of the population, chicken is the second most eaten meat in Africa after cow meat,
cow rearing isn’t really considered as poultry they are called ranch due to their capital intensive
nature, and demand for land and labor.
This is a different case in the western world, where chicken, rabbits are common and are done on more mechanized and larger scales. Before starting a poultry farm there are factors to consider before venturing into it.
Product factors;
What to rear. Before venturing into a poultry business you must consider what you want to rear
interns of studying the animal’s behavior, eating habits, lifespan. This will enable you to learn how to plan
for their development in terms of feeding, treatment, etc. This will enable make an inventory of what
you are about to embark on.
Viability talks of the usefulness, that’s to say, how useful will this animals specie be in terms
of income generation, for example, a man will choose to go for chicken species that are egg producers so
he can comfortably sell both chicken and eggs meaning he has two sources of income from the sales of
chicken and eggs. Another individual rearing rabbit is also capable of selling package rabbit meats and
also the rabbit’s poo which is rich in nutritional content and very useful for fertilizers and other purposes.
Business factor
Capital; before commencing any business you must take stock of your capital both financial and
material requirements in the case of poultry farming, the capital will be determined by the choice of
animals you choose to rear, chicken happens to be the most common poultry animal reared and it’s
estimated at $1500 for a start as financial requirements this carry with time and location, added to this
are land and infrastructure needed to house and Carter for them? All this must be taken into consideration
while talking of capital.
Raw material source; Common sense tells us that it’s always good to situate a business closed to its saw
of raw materials, in this case, it’s always advisable to put into consideration the location of your poultry
farm near its source of raw materials. Raw materials here include feedstock, water, and medication all of
these are needed for the livestock to grow and be in good health and will minimize the cost of production.
Market. The market plays a pivotal role in any business, you knowing your market gives you full
command of your business. This simply means you should do an inventory of your market to know their
needs, that’s to say know the type of livestock meat or food type they are used to, study if there is
room for changes and come in with yours following the need you have identified. Most times most
people fall into the temptation of bringing the right product for the wrong demand population, for instance, there are people who don’t eat eggs but eat fowl meat.
If you do a poultry farm using egg-laying
chickens u will definitely work on a deficit because there is no market for your eggs, but you are
inviting cost for it, another typical example is producing rabbits meat in areas used to chicken, you
will surely close down in a month. In a nutshell, the market is all about a business if you must do poultry you must have a command of the market by identifying users’ needs and connecting to it.
Conclusion
There’s no easy way to make money anywhere poultry may appear as a dirty job but comes with high
returns of properly managed and monitored. In all business is all about risk, poultry business is a sure
risky one as livestock are prone to diseases which usually affect them leading to their deaths, this is a
potential and huge loss on your path if it’s ever happening but remember it’s not how times you fail that
matters but how many times you rise up and willing to make another attempt that wins.
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