Eastern Farmer Agriculture and General Enterprise, a leading company in Agrochemicals, fertilizer, pesticides, and insecticide in Sierra Leone, together with their partners from the Netherlands, Nutreco, a company of Trouw Nutrition, on Friday 19th April 2024, engaged over fifty (50) poultry farmers from across the country on the use of the Hendrix Poultry Concentrates already in the Sierra Leone Market.
The training workshop held at the Sierra Palms Hotel also captured several best practices of international standards that will help farmers improve the productivity of their chicks and poultry.
During his presentation, the representative of Nutreco in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Gambia, Samuel Heloo, outlined several methods, best practices, and procedures to follow from rearing the chicks to production.
The types of feeds at the stages of growth, housing, feeding lighting, and vaccination of the chicks were all part of the discussions and experiences shared among the farmers present. Samuel Heloo further stated that Nutreco is working in Africa to address the issues of the availability and affordability of poultry feeds and concentrates, which are challenges poultry farmers face.
John Conteh, CEO of Eastern Farmers, stated that, over the years, their company has contributed a lot in making available good, high-quality agricultural inputs, fertilizers, and agrochemicals in the market to support farmers improve on their yield. He also stated that the decision to venture into poultry feeds and concentrates is to address the challenges of poultry farmers, making high-performance concentrates available in the market by producing high-quality feeds in the country.
A representative from the poultry farmers association, Sia Lajaku-Williams, welcomed the initiative to engage farmers and described the session as very educative. She called on Eastern Farmers and their partners to make their products available and affordable to meet the demands of farmers. Madam Lajaku-Williams also appealed for other services like veterinary, availability of vaccination, and other services to ensure the industry is productive. Eastern Farmers Agriculture and General Enterprise will soon commence the production of poultry feeds in Sierra Leone that will cater to farmers in Sierra Leone and the sub-region.
The representative from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mohamed S. Bah, thanked Eastern Farmers and their partners for their intervention, stating that the Ministry has been looking forward to strengthening collaboration with the private sector to address food security. He also highlighted the interventions of the Ministry and Partners to support poultry farmers.
The Executive Chairman of Eastern Farmers, Mr Sahr L Jusu, said that he’s happy to be part of the poultry sector and to work towards addressing the most burning challenge to poultry farmers. He said the Hendrix 4U Poultry Feed Plant can produce 7,500 metric tons or 150,000 50 kg bags of high-quality quality performance feed per annum, with the potential to add on as the market demand expands. “Once production starts later this year, we expect market price to reduce, address foreign exchange issues facing poultry farmers to import concentrate and source local inputs such as maize, oyster shells, increase output and higher income to farmers” He added. The partner company, Trouw Nutrition of Nutreco of Netherlands will provide technical services including online services as well as continuous education.
