Juba — Central Equatoria State Deputy Governor Manase Lomole Waya together with seven state ministers paid an inspection visit Wednesday to Central Equatoria State demonstration Farm located east of River Nile from the heart of Juba city. He said the purpose of his visit was to see the progress of the poultry farm which was initiated by the state Government.

The State Government brought ten thousands fertilized eggs from Kenya to test the hatchery machine which was brought from Syria. Lomole said the hatchability is been commendable, about 90% of the eggs brought have produced chickens.

Producing chicks locally will help to cut down the cost of importing them from Uganda because they are sold at pocket friendly prices. He said the farm will enable the farmers to have access to chicks and buy them for their own farms so that they can produce the desired chicken meat. Meanwhile the state Minister of Animal Resources and Fisheries Professor Ladu Bureng said the Farm is holding 2000 parent chicks brought from Uganda both broilers and layers. "In this state we have gone a long way in developing poultry industry; at the moment I brought seven ministers to see the development of the project".

The state wants to feed the citizens with the quality protein got from chicks and dairy that is produced locally. Last year the state government imported 150 goats from Uganda however within one year they are now 241 goats both for meat and milk purposes, he added. He said most of the feeds are still imported from neighboring countries but they will soon establish feeds industry in order to reduce the cost. The next project will be a dairy farm which is located east of the poultry farm, "next week am going to Nairobi to select the cattle we want to try for the start of the dairy Farm, they are about 50- 70 cattle needed to be brought."

Investors from the Government of Israel are interested to invest in dairy farming in the state, about 300 high breed cattle are promised but it is not yet mature due to finance problem. He encouraged the young graduates to get involved in farming projects in order to provide enough food for this nation.