By
Edidiong Udobia
When
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, during the campaigns ahead of the
2015 governorship election, promised to bring the long awaited
industrialization of Akwa Ibom to reality, many people had probably laughed it
off as another fairy tale from a politician. Of course, such doubt was
justifiable considering the fact that the state had woefully failed to fulfill
the industrialization dream when it had the golden opportunity.
For instance,
such dream was far more realistic during the economic boom when the state
received as much as 25billion on monthly basis from the Federation account with
an annual IGR of 9 billion, (AKSG 2012 budget appropriation).
The
people were even more doubtful when they recalled how the previous
administration failed to fulfill its promise of "one local government, one
industry". Former Governor Godswill Akpabio, during his 2011 governorship
campaigns, promised that if reelected, he will ensure that at least, 31
industries are built across the 31 Local Government Areas of the state. At some
point in the life of the last administration, there was a serious outcry by the
masses over the state government’s failure to fulfill the promise of building
31 industries.
However, the outcry was dismissed by the agents of the state
government with such claims that "government cannot build industries"
or "Godswill Akpabio's administration focused on infrastructure. The next
government will focus on industrialization".
Eventually,
the Godswill Akpabio led administration ended and gave way to the current
government of Mr. Udom Emmanuel. In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015,
Governor Udom Emmanuel reassured that the policy thrust of his administration
will be to provide adequate infrastructure that would affect the lives of its
citizenry and attract investors to the state, adding that sustaining the
achievements of the last administration and the industrialization of the state
through public-private partnership will be his core drive.
"You
have kept your part of the covenant and I intend to keep my part by executing
the programmes I enunciated to you during my official declaration to run for
the office of Governor. These include: To leverage and build on the Uncommon
Transformation of the Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio administration. To
transform the economy of our State via industrialization and sustain
public-private sector initiative, thereby opening up opportunities for growth
and improved living standards".
Governor
Udom's 1st year in office:
Since the administration of former Governor Akpabio, it was a status quo for
the state government to mark every Democracy Day/Anniversary (May 29) with
groundbreaking, inspection of ongoing and inauguration of completed projects.
To mark the event which is usually a week long, the state government schedules
select life-touching projects to be visited by the governor. During the visits,
the governor alongside his entourage, is welcomed in a colourful event by
indigenes of the host community where a project is sited.
On
Sunday, May 29, 2016, the government of Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel marked
its 1st year anniversary. As part of the activities to mark the event which
commenced on Tuesday, May 24, Governor Udom Emmanuel visited no fewer than 28
projects which were randomly but strategically sited across the state.
One of
such projects was Akwa Prime Hatchery and Poultry Ltd, Mbiaya Uruan, Uruan
Local Government Area. The atmosphere in Mbiaya Uruan on Saturday, May 28, 2016
was away from the normal as the usually calm and relatively quiet ambiance of
the community was overtaken by fanfare. With great joy and ecstacy, the people
of Mbiaya came out en masse to witness the official inauguration of the Hatchery
by Governor Udom.
Inaugurating
the project, the governor said that apart from creating employment, the
hatchery would also ensure appropriate pricing of products through its value
chain. He reiterated that the major focus in the period was to provide motivation,
direction and inspiration for a new Akwa Ibom packaged as an oasis of
industrialisation and good governance, adding that in spite of lean resources
resulting from the global economic downturn, his administration had recorded
positive achievements.
Though
the hatchery is an initiative of the immediate past administration, the project
has received major boasts from the current administration. For instance,
besides the inauguration, shortly after assuming office, Governor Emmanuel
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Hatchery. The Governor also
designed a free training/empowerment programme for over 200 poultry out-growers
at Akwa Prime Hatchery and provision of 1000 day old chicks start up pack to
each of the qualified participants at the end of the training.
The project
which comprises a feed mill and a breeder farm commenced production of 110,000
day old chicks (DOCs) per week on the 29th May, 2016.
The
new drive:
When the state government under former Governor Akpabio took the bold steps to
intervene in the livestock and fisheries sub-sector through the Accelerated
Livestock and Fish Production Programme (ALFIPP), the primary targets were food
security, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation. It was through the ALFIPP
scheme that the Akwa Prime Hatchery, alongside 10 fish farms were established
to boast the agricultural sub-sector of the state.
The
then governor himself admitted to this fact when he said; "The importance
of agriculture cannot be over-emphasized. We hope to invest in agriculture in
order to alleviate poverty among the people, attain food security and boost
agricultural production. Our target is to boost production and the marketing of
cash crops, staple foods, livestock and fisheries through institutional and
infrastructural empowerment of private, small, medium and large-scale crop and
livestock farmers".
While
the previous administration invested in the agricultural sector for the sake of
preparing the state against the much-talked about global food crisis and ensure
the strategic engagement of the people of the state in food production, the
current administration is taking it to another level. The target now is to
ensure that Akwa Ibom takes the lead in poultry business. Beyond food security
and job creation, the new drive will boost the economy of the state through
increased income generation.
According to the chairman, Akwa Prime Hatchery
Board, Mr. Francis Ekeng, before now, all the poultry products like chicks and
feeds in Akwa Ibom were brought in from the Western part of the country.
"Over
the years, all the chicks that have been coming into Akwa Ibom, have been
imported from the Western part of Nigeria and they have been coming in on
weekly basis. The capital flight alone enhances the GDP of those states. Also,
there is no commercial feed mill producing poultry feeds in large quantities in
Akwa Ibom. These are all imported into the state. The truth is, the raw
materials for these poultry feeds are produced by the local farmers in those
states", said Mr. Ekeng. However, he is certain that when all the
components of the hatchery are ready and put into full use, the hatchery will
be completely independent.
Also,
a public affairs analyst, Joe Iniodu writes, "As at now, all the daily
chicks’ needs of the people of these regions are from the South-West. These
daily chicks are brought from distances like Ogun, Oyo, Osun or Ekiti States
with the attendant risk of death or weakness that may result in fragile health
even at the time of maturity. Of course, there are incidental costs like huge
cost of transportation and veterinary services thus making the participation of
the people of these regions in poultry business very cumbersome and not cost
effective".
Presently,
the Akwa Prime Hatchery, which occupies a 5,000 hectares of land, has an
incubator of a minimum 200,000 capacity, while work is ongoing on the first
breeder farm. The first breeder farm will have the capacity of 60,000 chickens
which are expected to produce between 45,000 to 50,000 eggs daily. In order to
ensure adequate supply of eggs, a 15,000 hectares of land has been acquired for
the second breeder farm. Mr. Ekeng assured that with all the materials
available and in the required quantity, the Hatchery has the capacity to run
over 1.5million chicks production weekly. "The target is to ensure that
Akwa Ibom becomes the hub in poultry production in the South-South", added
Ekeng
Akwa
Prime Hatchery is presently the first in the South-South region and the biggest
in the South-South, South-East region. The other hatchery in this part of the
country is the utra-modern Animal Health Farms and Hatcheries in Enugu State,
which was inaugurated by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwauanyi in 2015. It has a total egg
capacity of 95,000 with a muti-stage setter capable of handling 30,000 eggs
every week.
"This is the second hatchery in the South-East and also in
South-South and from what we have seen so far, I think people from Kaduna and
Kano will also take their own chicks from this direction", Enugu State
Commissioner for Agriculture and Water Resources, Mike Eneh said during the
commissioning of the hatchery in Enugu.
Another
interesting thing about the Hatchery is the almost zero adverse effect it has
on its immediate environment. According to a ranking staff of the State
Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the hatchery was strategically
located far away from the parts of the community where people are living. He
noted that a thorough environmental impact assessment was conducted to ensure
the safety of the host community.
The hatchery has even opened up the community
to development. For instance, the state government has concluded plans to
construct the road leading to the hatchery as well as open other internal roads
in the community to make the hatchery very accessible.
"Since
this hatchery was commissioned by Governor Udom Emmanuel, so many good things
have come to our community. Our local restaurants and shops are now selling
very well because the hatchery has brought so many customers. Our people are
also working in the hatchery. They are building something right now in that
hatchery, if you go there, most of the labourers are from this community",
said Davidson Inyang, a youth leader in Mbiaya Uruan.
In
his recent analysis of the hatchery, Nsisong ‘Roddy’ EtukUdo, reports “The
Poultry facility has components like, Breeder Farm or Parent Stock Farm – this
is where the eggs are produced in large quantities; The Hatchery – this is
where the eggs are hatched (day old chicks); The blast freezer – operates on
about 170°C; Packaging Room; Training Center for farmers etc.” He further
notes, “At the moment, about 20,000 day old chicks are hatched per week and
around 60,000 tonnes of dairy products are sold per week”.
Outgrowers
scheme:
According to the General Manager of Akwa Prime Hatchery, Dr. Yakubu Bala, one
of the reasons the pilot phase of the hatchery failed was because of the lapses
in the initial outgrowers' scheme. The scheme is a partnership between the Akwa
Prime Hatchery and local poultry farmers. The hatchery provides day old chicks
(depending on the farmer's capacity), poultry feeds and other extention
services like seminars and veterinary services to farmer.
The farmer is
expected to breed the birds for about four to five weeks after which the
management of the hatchery will come and off-take the full-grown birds and pay
the farmer his entitlement. Presently, the scheme runs on 70:30 ratio, where
the the Hatchery bears 70% cost while the farmer takes only 30% of the total
cost.
"Initially,
the scheme was conceived through a 50:50 contribution between Akwa Prime and
the farmer but in the course of analysing it, we found out that not everybody
could afford that so we had to go down to 70:30 contribution, which means that
the feeding component is fully financed by the Hatchery because it is about 70%
of the cost.
It is only on the day old chicks that we play with the figures.
The drugs and medications have to be fully financed. Poultry business is very
risky so we introduced the scheme so that despite the risks, we can deliver the
products with as much safety as we can", says Dr. Bala.
For
many poultry farmers in Akwa Ibom state, the scheme is the best thing to happen
to poultry farming in the state. Besides making poultry products readily
available and at low cost, through off-taking, the scheme also guarantees the
farmers of a ready market with minimum loss. Before now, poultry farming in the
state was very challenging as poultry farmers could not make significant
profits because of low sales.
Despite the fact that Akwa Ibom is rated among
the highest consumer of poultry products in the South-South region, the lack of
wholesale markets for the products was a major limitation to poultry business
in the state. Most poultry traders ran very small poultry farms in other avoid
incurring unnecessary loss.
Dr.
Bala was optimistic that with the effort so far, the outgrowers' scheme of Akwa
Prime Hatchery will measure up to those of renowned hatcheries like Zartech
Limited, Ibadan; CHR Hatchery; Amo Farm, Oyo; and Obasanjo's Farm, Ota. Besides
providing farmers with day old chicks, the Hatchery insures all the chicks to
further minimize the risks on the part of the farmers.
There is also provision
by the Hatchery for trained veterinarians to frequently check on the birds at
the various poultry farms. Most interestingly, the current model of outgrowers'
scheme enables a poultry farmer who is duly registered with the Hatchery, to
access a bank loan in order to boost his business.
Currently,
there are 30 poultry farmers under the outgrowers' scheme who are given a total
of about 15,000 day old chicks weekly. Findings show that out of every 15,000
chicks distributed to the farmers, minimum of 14,000 full-grown birds are
harvested after 6weeks. According Dr. Bala, the figure is very impressive considering
the fact that the scheme is only starting and the risk involved in poultry
business. In his opinion, the outgrowers' scheme, which is the nucleus of the
hatchery, huge success so far.
Value
chain, challenges and prospects:
The Hatchery has a wide value chain. From the processing, transportation to
finishing, there are many economically viable opportunities for people to
engage. For instance, truck owners within the locality are involved the weekly
transportation of chicks from the hatchery to the various processing plants and
they charge N10 per bird.
Also, at the processing plants, which privately
owned, the Hatchery pays N40 per bird for processing. Moreso, where all the
feed mills commence operation, the biggest beneficiaries of the value chain
will be the local farmers. This is because feed products like maize, soya
beans, and fish meal will be in high demand. Also benefitting from the value
chain are owners of dryers and silos, while operators of abattoirs are set to
break-in.
Joe
Iniodu further explains how local farmers in the state will benefit from the
hatchery through the value chain; "Poultry farms depend on feed mills.
Feed is an amalgam of sundry components with maize being the most dominant. In
every 30,000 tonnes of feed, 21,000 tonnes are maize constituents.
A ton of
maize today sells for N140,000.00. It therefore means that for every 30,000
tonnes of feeds, there is a maize component of 21,000 tonnes. If one multiplies
N140,000 by 21,000 tonnes, one sees the monetary value that is carted out of
the state with every purchase of 30,000 tonnes of feeds".
As
Governor Udom rightly admitted recently, the biggest challenge facing the
hatchery at the moment is paucity of funds. However, from all indications, the
state government is striking the right deals with investors which has yielded
positive results so far. The other challenge is the lack of awareness on the
part of the local people, who ought to be the primary beneficiaries of the
hatchery.
Presently, many poultry farmers within the state are not aware of the
business opportunities available at the hatchery. Again, the state government
through the management of the hatchery, is carrying out various awareness
campaigns, one of which is the regular seminars for beneficiaries of the outcome
scheme and intending ones.
Besides
the success recorded so far, there are still many prospects for the hatchery.
The overall goal is to get all components of the hatchery, such as the breeder
farms, feed mill plant, dryer, storage facilities, cold room, processing plants
and others, functioning. Once this is achieved, the Akwa Prime Hatchery will
compete favourably with the biggest hatcheries in the country. With big
companies like ShopRite and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) already indicating
interest to patronize Akwa Prime Hatchery, Akwa Ibom state is set to join the
big players in poultry business. This will ultimately boost the revenue of the
state. Akwa Prime Hatchery is another proof of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s
commitment towards his industrialization dive and the people must embrace it.
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