The Coordinator of the United Nations’ Food and
Agriculture Organisation [FAO] Enhanced Guinea Fowl Production project for
Northern Ghana, Samuel Yaw Apiigah, has observed that if every household in the
area had twenty guinea fowls poverty among residents would become a thing of
the past.
He said, if government
and its development partners really wanted to alleviate poverty in the North they
must encourage guinea fowls rearing among households in the area because it was
economically viable and the demand for guinea fowl products was very high in
the domestic and international markets.
Speaking at the
official inauguration of a US$312,000 Enhanced Guinea Fowl Production project
at Pong-Tamale in the Northern Region, Mr. Apiigah explained further that
guinea fowl was the favourite meat for thousands of people within and outside
Ghana, due to its nutritional value and low fats level.
The project was
launched three years ago with the ultimate objective to increase the production
of guinea fowls and drastically reduce mortality rate in the Upper West, Upper
East and Northern Regions where they were reared in large quantities.
With funding from the FAO, the project
dubbed: “Enhanced Guinea Fowl
Production in the Northern Regions of Ghana” was under the Government’s Accelerated
Agricultural Growth and Development Strategy (AAGDS) and the Growth and Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRS II), also aimed at improving food security, human
welfare and the reduction of poverty in the country.
The project which was implemented by Ghana’s Ministry of
Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the International Centre for Enterprise and
Sustainable Development (ICED), was expected to increase the production of guinea
fowls from the current 30 million birds annually to 100 million birds within
the three year period and beyond.
As part of the project, three demonstration and breeding
centres [hatcheries] were established at Pong-Tamale in the Northern Region, Paga
in the Upper East Region and Babile in the Upper West Region to enhance the
production of guinea fowls.
The breeding and demonstration centres were equipped with
the necessary hatchery equipment such as incubators, generators, water and
feeding troughs, drugs and vaccines, improved housing and sanitation facilities,
disease prevention and control mechanisms as well as stocking the centre with
2,500 high laying egg efficiency peel with exotic guinea fowl keets each.
The project
which was piloted in 22 communities in four districts namely, East Mamprusi in
the Northern Region, Kasena-Nankana West in the Upper East and Lawra and Lambusie-Karni
in the Upper West Region, enhanced the capacity of 181 model guinea fowl
farmers, 45 Agricultural Extension Agents and 21 subject matter specialists
from different MoFA structures as well as project staff members in modern
guinea fowl production in areas such as husbandry, healthcare, marketing and
value chain approaches.
According to Mr.
Apiigah, the project was significant in the provision of food security,
nutrition and increase in farmers’ incomes in rural communities. He explained
that the project had introduced modern guinea
fowl production equipment and exotic breeds to arrest the high mortality
associated with guinea fowl production that would also serve as a training centre
for students on guinea fowl rearing in the country.
Berhanu Bedane in an address read on behalf of the Deputy
Regional Representative for FAO Africa and FAO Representative to Ghana, said fighting
hunger and malnutrition as well as improving the living standards of the rural
poor through improved agricultural production were at the centre of all the UN
agency’s efforts.
He said: “The level of poverty, the difficult agro-climatic
conditions for most agricultural production, the suitability of semi-arid
agro-ecological condition for guinea fowl and the long tradition of rearing
guinea fowl in the three regions of the north and the unmet demands for guinea
fowl meat and eggs both in domestic and international markets are factors which
were taken into account while formulating this project.”
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| Berhanu Bedane, FAO official |
Mr. Bedane, disclosed that a total of 6,600 improved breeds
of guinea fowl keets were purchased and distributed to 181 model farmers in the
area who also received starter kits to venture into commercial production.
He indicated that the achievement of the project was
encouraging and believed what it had achieved in the 22 communities of the four
piloted districts would enable beneficiaries of the project to further put to
practice what they had been trained on and share with others, knowledge and
skills acquired to improve upon the production, productivity and marketing of
guinea fowls. This, in his estimation would help upscale current achievements
and create job opportunities for themselves and other thousands of farmers in
the country.
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