A PRIVATELY owned entity based in the capital city has established a major modern poultry farm which seeks to have improved local chicken breeds.
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food.
In efforts to have the best products, the Tanzania Youth Entrepreneurship group (TYEG), now commands a total of ten acres at Bihawana's Mbadala Ward in the city where it has put up a huge facility of incubators for professional hatching of different varieties of local chicken breeds.
During an interview regarding the vital investment, the group's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Christopher Dioniz noted that the reason behind the project was to restore and heighten production and availability of local chicken breeds.
"Demand for local chicken keeps increasing and most poultry farmers now seem busy producing hybrid breeds, through artificial insemination (AI) as an alternative means to help cater for the increased demand," he said.
According to him, the ongoing trend will automatically result in a total extinction of the healthier- valuable local chicken breeds, hence a need to venture into a specific strategy to help improve the situation.
At the farm, the CEO detailed that they are working on a mixture of improved local chicken breeds through crossbreeding, taking into account those from Singida and Tabora, among others.
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"Apart from possessing high levels of Vitamin B, particularly B3 and B12 for brain function and blood health, these local chickens (improved breed) are easy to raise, they use low breeding costs, and are resistant to diseases, whereby in terms of food, they consume little supplements, " he observed.
He challenged the government to see the imperative of using its relevant training centres, as the Livestock Institute Training Authority (LITA) as well as the ongoing Building a Better Tomorrow Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) Programme to impart and sensitise the involved beneficiaries in the relevant sector to play a key role in heightening production of the improved local chicken breeds.
"Among others, we have introduced this farm in order to be used as a yardstick for well- determined youth entrepreneurs to acquire necessary skills and technology over the sector, " he said.
Being the country's excelling poultry group, Mr Dioniz expressed that the group was keen and will continue cooperating with the government to implement different programmes aimed at disseminating the poultry skills across the country.
With its headquarters in Dodoma Capital City, the group comprises professional youth in poultry and other key sectors in agribusiness.
Apart from generating profits, the core vision for the establishment of the group is to roll out free training to the youth so as to enable them venture into diverse agribusiness projects to help overcome challenges of unemployment.
The group which has so far claimed various national and international awards and recognitions, engages in several products, including poultry, aquaculture (fish farming), rabbit rearing, production of livestock feeds as well as chicken cages production, among others.
