Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery and the Edo State Government have partnered to ensure that the gender component is adequately taken into account in the implementation of the company’s vision to empower rural poor, especially women, in Nigeria as they donated 20,000 birds to 500 widows under its Amo Noiler Initiative.
Amo Noiler Initiative, a rural development endeavour, is designed to improve the quality of life of rural people in Nigeria, especially women, by enhancing their employment and income opportunities.
Having observed that prior to the early 70’s that poultry was in the hands of most deprived and destitute group in rural areas, the company believes that poultry for the poorest people would have an added advantage by way of regular day-to-day cash returns through the sale of eggs and periodic cash income from the sale of birds for meeting occasional family exigencies.
To revive the abandoned backyard and semi-intensive farming system that constitutes about 70 per cent of total bird population, AFSH joined hands with the First Lady Edo State to contribute their quota to poverty alleviation and improving nutritional condition of widows and less privileged people in the state.
AFSH Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, explained that Amo Noiler is multi-coloured dual purpose breed-cross suitable for back yard rearing.
According to him, the breeder stocks had been well vaccinated and maintained under stringent bio-security to produce a chick with good livability and excellent performance.
He said, “The offspring will have a good disease resistance like a native chicken and the fast growing character of the bird helps in less brooding efforts, less fat, tasty and higher meat yield compared to native birds. The meat is tougher than the commercial broiler meat and they are reared with no antibiotics and chemicals as they can be transformed into ‘organic chicken’.
“The dual purpose birds have all the attributes of native, faster growth, less fat and more eggs that suits small farmers. Their slow growth feature thrive on low inputs and meet the gap of nutritional security of developing countries. One bird per week can supply 500gms chicken per head every week. This also can make a huge difference in meeting the per capita consumption of the country.”
Wife of the Edo State Governor, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, explained that the milestone provided another opportunity to re-emphasise the need to dismantle the barrier preventing women from realising their potentials and contributing fully to the economic and socio-political life of their communities.
“With our partnership with Amo group, I believe female presence will be recognised and our women given more important roles, because a society desirous of development cannot afford to treat them with less significance, the issues and voices of half of its population.
“We must once again bring to the fore the challenges surrounding the education of the girl child, which is a vital component of the development of the society. If we are to sustain the effort made at empowering our women, we must continually use the instrument of education like what Amo group brings on board to close the gap,” she said.
Giving details of the business model of the initiative, Country Coordinator, Amo Noiler, Ms. Bunmi Oluwalasinu, said that the programme would help eradicate poverty and malnutrition in the country, especially in the rural areas.
“The government ensures 40 birds are given to each beneficiary (500 widows), which will be twenty males and twenty females. The male birds would be ready for self-consumption or sale by 13 to 14 weeks, while female birds can be kept for egg production. The Unique Selling Proposition of the initiative is that the birds can live on scavenging, kitchen waste and unused grains,” she said.
