Increasing cost of poultry feed: Women in Poultry Value Chain urged to venture into soy cultivation

The Northern Regional Director of Agriculture, Hajia Hawa Musah has challenged WIPVaC to look at options of securing funds or grant to support soy and maize cultivation by members.

This, she explained, will greatly reduce the cost of feed production, which account for close to 70% of cost of production in the poultry industry.

Speaking at the opening of a six-day integrated financial management training organized by WIPVaC for its members in the northern sector of Ghana, a representative from the MoFA -Baba Musah who spoke on behalf of the Northern Regional Director, noted that MoFA field observations shows that women often do not derive much from interventions that do not target them directly or specifically, are therefore often excluded from projects and programmes interventions.

She was however hopeful that Women in Poultry Value Chain will bridge the gap in women non-accessibility to services including financial support and financial management of enterprises.

It is established that women contribute close to 70% of work force in the agriculture value chain, yet women are not rewarded or compensated equally for their efforts.

The training

Hajia Hawa Musa observed that, continuous training is a step in the right direction as most associations have collapsed because leadership and members lost touch of the things that were relevant and could keep them as a formidable organization.

She further observed that the training will transform women enterprises in the poultry value chain and will empower actors economically and socially.

Capacity building in financial management particularly for women is timely in the mist of global economic crisis. Time is running out for us to addressing keys goals of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2030,” she stated.

She noted that empowering women is critical to and will contribute to addressing some key goals of the SDGs: 1: No poverty; 2: Zero hunger; 3: Good health and wellbeing; 5: Gender equality; 8: Decent work and economic growth; Reduced inequality; Responsible consumption and production and above all; 13: Climate action.

“This is because women are the in the fore runners in most activities that could potentially address the SDGs”, she added.

She mentioned that poultry keeping particularly by women will help reduce burden of trekking daily to run business, reduce stress and will provide adequate time to handle family and domestic issues particularly for those not in the public service and extra income for persons in government employment.

“Agriculture has been identified to be central to addressing most current development challenges faced by developing countries. An integrated crop and livestock farming system will enhance our food systems resilience and sustainability”, she stressed.

The Integrated Financial Training, with sponsorship from ASA/WISHH, is the fourth in series for WIPVaC members. This brings the total beneficiaries of the training to 100 women.

The National President of WIPVaC, Dr. Victoria Norgbey, reiterated that the training would harmonise the interest of women in poultry and serve as an advocacy mouthpiece for an enabling environment towards a sustainable poultry business thereby improving lives through the raising of poultry and poultry products.

WIPVaC

WIPVaC-Apex is a registered Umbrella Organization that seeks to bring together all Women along the Poultry Value Chain in Ghana for common interests and the mouthpiece in Advocacy for an enabling environment towards sustainable Poultry business.

The group is made up of aggregators of maize and Soya, suppliers of day old Chicks, dealers in poultry inputs such as fishmeal, concentrates, poultry drugs and poultry feed,  poultry farmers, egg sellers, guinea fowl and chicken products, live bird sellers and processors.

Major activities of the group include promoting and protecting the economic interest of members, capacity building and advocacy to mobilize resources for the improvement of businesses and facilitating access to inputs, finance and market information

PARTNERSHIP

Over the past years, WIPVaC-Apex has partnered with many organizations and institutions including The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH). WISHH and WIPVaC are also working to help WIPVaC members respond to feed costs by helping members diversify into maize production. Also, in summer 2022, WISHH expects to include WIPVaC members in a feed quality training at Kansas State University. Use of USDA Market Access Program funds will allow WISHH to share knowledge to improve feed efficiency and quality since feed costs are a challenge to Ghana’s poultry farmers.

WIPVaC’s strategic partnership with WISHH also forges win-win bonds between the women and U.S. soybean growers, says executive committee member Patricia Dzesu, “We are looking at a strong relationship with WISHH to exchange information and secure availability of American soy. Once we are able to get more soy readily available, then our members will be able to produce continuously.”

WIPVaC also partners with the African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resource (AU-IBAR) who under the VET-GOV project saw the essence of establishing an umbrella for all women poultry value chain actors hence the birth of WIPVaC-Apex.

GIZ has supported the group through funding during exhibitions and capacity building of our women in strategic planning and Advocacy skills.

WIPVaC-Apex Ghana also received support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) fund and its donors USAID and DANIDA to implement the ECOWAS Veterinary Pharmaceutical Protocol in Ghana. This initiative was to help in the passage of the ECOWAS bill to regulate the importation of veterinary drugs into the country and also to dialogue with the different stakeholders involved in pushing for the speedy implementation of the protocol.

In 2019, the USDA-Ghana Poultry Project (USDA-GPP) supported the group with Pullet Out-grower Support Project in their operational areas i.e. Accra, Kumasi and erstwhile Brong

Ahafo. Also, the provided Capacity building workshops on Poultry Husbandry, Biosecurity and Animal husbandry.

Our partnership with AMPLIFIES has also helped in sensitizing our women in egg production to improve upon their production and also in developing Egg Pictorial Standard to educate the public and improve their production.

The recent flagship of our events is the establishment of Entrepreneurship Savings and Loans Groups (ESLG) in three GPP operational areas (Accra, Kumasi, Bono and Bono East). This is to inculcate savings habit in our women and help them mobilize resources and funds for their businesses. This again was funded by GPP and also in collaboration with Global Women Development Promoters (GLOWDEP) who are experts in ESLG.