The Food Security Initiative of the Federal Government is receiving a major boost from natnudO Food’s Broiler Out-grower Scheme tagged “natnuPreneur”. Natnupreneur is an extension of Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery whose farm infrastructure is among the most advanced in West Africa, located in Awe, Oyo state, Nigeria.
The scheme, which offers free poultry consultation and a ready market for produce to registered poultry farmers, is aimed at sustaining profitability; and well over 1,000 poultry farmers have been reached since its inception.
This was gathered recently, while the coordinator of the scheme, Mr. Gbolade Adewole, while interacting with journalists.
According to him, many millionaires have been produced from the natnudO Foods’ out-grower scheme, while many more are in the making. The scheme, he said, is designed to fulfill the chicken needs of Nigerians and is win-win arrangement, drawn to ensure that good quality chicken meat, that satisfy safety standards, are readily available in the country.
In his words, “More than 1,000 farmers have benefited from the natnuPreneur out-grower initiative in the last three years. The programme was developed to help poultry farmers realize sustainable profit, through the provision of high quality training, advisory services, supply of high quality farm inputs and an output off-take plan. With this arrangement, poultry farmers don’t have to worry about marketing their produce because we have a ready market for them. Whatever quantity of broilers our farmers produce, we buy from them. This is easy since our company has the capacity to off-take all the broilers produced by farmers; making the venture profitable to them at minimal risk”.
Mr. Adewole further explained that to guarantee sustainable profit for natnuPreneur farmers, the company provides extension services through well trained professionals. These extension workers pay regular visits to farms, offer technical, business and project management advice, and also proffer solutions to problems that may arise on the farms. They also connect farmers to the other arms of the company, which are, Amo Byng for their poultry feeds, Diversay Solutions for their drugs and vaccines need. This means a one-stop shop for poultry farmers’ needs. In effect, this has helped to maintain quality and the standards achieved with the programme.
The coordinator also stated, “It is not enough to help farmers achieve profitability after just one cycle. What we are most concerned about is that the profit increases and gets sustained. For this reason, we employ professional counseling on poultry management processes, to help farmers maintain profitability. Registered farmers on the scheme are guided on how to manage and grow healthy broilers in a way that would minimize flock mortality. We also provide them with a feeding, watering and vaccination schedule, and supervise these operations”.
Mr. Adewole added that, the scheme, in the three years of its existence, has partnered with financial institutions like Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Sterling Bank, and other commercial banks to finance farmers. Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through its anchor borrower initiative, has provided credit facilities for farmers on the scheme. “We have collaborated with top financial institutions and shared resources in the process. Our data and analysis are globally recognized and this is what we use to improve output of poultry farmers for profitability”, he included.
However, in spite of the scheme’s tremendous achievements, it has faced challenges, some of which are common to other businesses, like cost of doing business in Nigeria, per capital income, competition against smuggled chicken, government policies, cost of living in Nigeria, and so on. The coordinator then concluded that, if these problems are dealt with, the long term goal of repositioning the poultry out-grower service, by supporting the establishment of new businesses, while expanding existing ones in the nooks and crannies of the country, would finally be realized.
