The poultry business in Nigeria is one of the most lucrative farming ventures you can engage in Nigeria.
Nigerian farmers are currently not able to produce a sufficient amount of chicken to satisfy the Market. The farming sector thus holds a viable opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to invest in large-scale Agriculture.
There is a lot of untapped potential in the poultry sector. It has a ready market both for the chicken and the egg including the feed production and distribution.
Poultry farming can be done either on a small scale or large scale. It is recommended that you start small to gain experience and then grow from there.
However, your profit margin is higher with large-scale rearing than the small-scale rearing.
Poultry rearing is a fast source of income for agricultural investors because of the short period of maturity.
It takes only two to three months to grow your chicken to table size although some brands like layers and cockerel take a longer time to mature.
How To Establish A Poultry Business Farm
1. Choose the type of bird that you want to rear
Goose, chicken, turkey, and duck are the types of birds that are commonly reared in Nigeria but chicken is the most commonly reared type.
Chickens that are reared for agricultural purposes are of different types. These include layers, broilers, and a cockerel – decide on the type of chicken you want to rear.
Although you can engage in all types of chicken poultry farming, it is better to start with a specific type and when you have established that aspect of poultry farming, you can switch to other forms.
Your choice of chicken type to rear depends on your purpose of going into the business; whether you want to rear chicken for egg or for meat. You can decide to go into any of the following aspects of poultry farming:
- Layers rearing this is mainly for the purpose of egg production
- Broiler rearing is mostly reared for meat production.
- Poultry feed. This aspect of poultry farming deals with the production of poultry feeds.
- You may choose to Breed Layers and Broilers at a time or one of them. The hatchery is better done independently just like feed production. So, you choose your area of focus
2. Decide on a suitable location
Your poultry site will determine greatly the startup cost. It is better to get a location that is in a remote place to reduce costs. It is also more suitable as the government is opposed to the establishment of a poultry farm close to residential buildings or in urban areas.
3. Startup capital
Your startup capital will be determined by the size of the poultry farm you want to run. The cost of chicks fluctuates roughly from 150 naira to 300 naira for a one-day-old chick. The cost depends on the season.
Festivity periods like Christmas, Easter, and Salah. A bag of chicken feed costs roughly 3000 naira depending on the brand.
It is better to conduct a survey by visiting the nearest poultry farm and checking the current price of day-old chick to enable you to estimate properly to cost of setting up your farm.
That’s the basic things you need to know about poultry farming in Nigeria, it’s advisable that you conduct a proper feasibility study before you venture into the business fully.
4. Poultry Housing
It is advisable to have a nice housing plan for commercial poultry farming.
Although what will determine the housing is the amount of money you wish to spend (capital). Other determinants are the types of poultry breeds and farming methods.
Housing design will vary varies base on the type of poultry raising methods. But the major things you must consider in every poultry house are the ventilation system and spacing between the birds.
For as long as this is taken care of, it doesn’t really matter how the poultry house looks like – once it is presentable, even if you use the cheapest of material to build the house it won’t affect productivity.
5. Poultry Feeding
For the birds to be very productive they desire optimum feeding. Quality food is the secret of every successful poultry business.
While feeding your birds – at a point you may think that you are spending too my on their feeding, but all this with even more profit will be recovered from them at the market.
Aside from feeding also supply the birds with a sufficient amount of clean water according to the demands of poultry.
6. Poultry Care
Poultry birds easily suffer from several types of bacterial, fungal, viral, nutritional, and parasitic diseases. You should give them a proper vaccination to keep them free from diseases.
For the poultry birds to be highly productive then they must be healthy. If there is an outbreak of disease do not hesitate to invite your veterinary doctor to address the issue professionally.
7. Marketing
Marketing your poultry produce should not at all be an issue at all. In fact, this is the best part of it all – receiving the reward for labor and investment.
Poultry already has lots of markets. Not just the market, the demand for poultry products is on the high side – be it poultry egg or meat. You may even choose to be doing only supplies to hotels and supermarkets.
However, you choose to market your products does not really matter as long as you are making the desirable profit.
