NALDA’s Bird Farm to Create Employment for 150 Youths in Yobe

By James Emejo

The Executive Secretary, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, has said that the proposed poultry farm in Yobe State will offer job opportunities to over 150 youths as well as boost the economy of Northern region.
He said already about 30,000 day-old birds had been mobilised ahead of the September inauguration of the 10-hectare farm estate.

Ikonne explained that the poultry will be purely dedicated to reproductive egg production.
He said,”The type of eggs we will be producing here will be reproductive eggs. Not the types that you just consume.
“These ones will go into the incubator for the reproduction of other birds. That is the advantage of this poultry farm and we are bringing in eight incubators.”
He said eggs will be reproduced in commercial quantities to serve not just the state but many parts of the Northern region.

The NALDA boss, who had embarked on inspection tour of the facility added that “The incubators will be used to hatch our eggs, as well as for us to keep reproducing and to feed other farms from this place, including farms that are within and outside the state.
“So our intention based on President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive is to engage the community because this project is community-based. It belongs to this community.”

According to him, “NALDA’s intention is to empower these youths and encourage them to go into agriculture and at the end of the day we will also produce chicken for meat.
“We are looking at engaging 150 youths from within this community and they will be trained on how to not only manage the birds, but will also receive training on other farm practices in animal production.”

He added that the farm would also practice other activities including land clearing, crop cultivation and demarcation of selected areas for goat rearing.
He said,”We are bringing in the goat pen, which makes it more inclusive, because we are also using here for rearing a particular specie of goat.

“This is in order to reproduce that specie in this location and the youths will be engaged in doing that. So this is a farm estate because at the end of the day you will have a finished products department, as well as egg and goat production sections.”