Miss Praise Ighama, will never forget the first experience she gained from venturing into the world of chicken production.
She started poultry farming with 250 birds, 50 bags of feeds with drugs and little stipends, which she got from the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), a federal government assisted project designed in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
After weeks in another farm as ‘incubatee’ (an apprenticeship system), Miss Praise decided to site her farm at Eku-Amukpe community in Sapele LGA in Delta State.
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Speaking with the Daily Trust in her farm, Miss Praise said she lost more than 140 out of the 250 birds she got, which broke her heart last year- a situation she described as “total failure.”
But that experience was a learning curve for her as she recounted: “I must definitely learn from somewhere. I had lots of mortality because it was my starting point but I decided to start again. I got a loan to start again.”
However, starting again wasn’t easy as the young farmer recounted: “With the little capital( about N100,000) I had at hand and a loan I got from a friend to start again, the price of day-old chicks and feed went up, making it quite difficult to start up again.
“Nevertheless, I started again and since then, the mortality rate reduced because I had to learn from my past mistakes. My first production for this year [2024], I had only one mortality and since then, it has been quite okay.”
With all the rough experience, Praise has done 10 circles of production as she continues to learn as the day gone-by, raising day-old chicks to four or six weeks, then selling.
Explaining how she navigates the current rising prices of feed in the country, the young farmer pointed out that the situation made many farmers exit the business.
“For every farmer, that aspect of incrementing feed and day-old chicks prices is quite a challenging one. In fact, I know some that actually started at the same time, but due to the keeping up with feeds and buying the chicks, which is quite expensive, they said okay, let’s wait till January because we’re all expecting it to come down. But, to my surprise, last week or so, I went to buy some bags of feed, they’ve added money again,” she said.
Currently she has about 1,200 (five months old) pullets and broilers of a month plus in her farm.
The young farmer said she recalls what her teacher (the LIFE-ND incubator) told her about starting a poultry production business last year:
“My incubator told me something. He said, Praise, if you know you don’t have the mind for this, don’t go into it. He said I should prepare my mind for any eventuality but that paying close attention and avoiding certain mistakes, I will succeed,” she recalled adding that “with the help of Life-ND, I learnt a lot. I can even help my parents out now to manage poultry production properly.”
Asked if she finds poultry farming exciting, this was how she responded: “if you love what you’re doing, it’s actually fun. It’s heartbreaking most times when I see one of my chicks die.”
The young woman said her dream is to make it in life through the farm even though she is aware of the challenges and the work needed.
“I want to go bigger than this because I see many people that have actually made it through this. They are made. They are self-made through agriculture,” she said.
She advised the youth like her out there who think agriculture is a game to have a rethink.
“Whoever thinks agriculture is nothing, I’m sorry. That’s all I can say. Agriculture is the real thing now, I would say. Forget things are actually high, prices are increasing. But if you’re into agriculture, you’ll know that there’s money. It’s just for you to put in the hard work. This is not child’s play. Most women will not do this. Some men will not do this. Let me just use the normal word, they say ‘shit money’ but there’s money in it, honestly,” she said.
