Poultry farmers in Discovery Bay receive assistance

Forty poultry farmers from Discovery Bay, St Ann, have been equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to resume production, following the impact of Hurricane Melissa last October.

This has been made possible through a training session hosted under the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) Bauxite Community Development Programme (BCDP).

The training, held at the Port Rhoades Club in the parish on June 30, forms part of a poultry recovery initiative through which beneficiaries will each receive 50 broiler chicks, 10 bags of feed and ongoing technical support to help restore their livelihoods and return to commercial production within six weeks.

Senior Projects Officer at the JBI, Wesley Harley, told JIS News the initiative was designed to help poultry farmers recover after many lost their birds and other farming assets during Hurricane Melissa.

“The project is aimed at assisting communities which are attached to the bauxite community councils to be restarted after the advent of Melissa. The folks around here tell us that they were devastated by Melissa, as the assets that they had, even the chickens that they had in production, they lost all of that,” Harley said.

“So, in recovering, it’s been a very slow start. What this project aims to do is to give them a booster for them to get started again,” he added.

Harley outlined that the project is intended not only to restore production, but also to encourage long-term sustainability among poultry farmers.

“We hope, and we are very adamant about this, we want them to continue in poultry production from here on. The objective of the programme… is to get them restarted and on the way to production so that they totally recover from the damage that they suffered from Hurricane Melissa,” he said.

Harley noted that Nutramix has partnered with the JBI to provide continued technical guidance through farm visits and monitoring to help farmers improve production and successfully market their birds.

For his part, Veterinary Manager at Nutramix, Dr Gilbert Williams, said the training focused on practical poultry management techniques to help farmers rebuild stronger and more efficient operations.

“Post-Hurricane Melissa, a lot of birds would have died, and a lot of farmers are reconstructing. So, this presentation also serves as a model as to how to build a coop… the orientation of the coop is also very important and the location of the coop is important,” Dr. Williams said.

He emphasised that proper ventilation and biosecurity are critical to maintaining healthy flocks.

“We should always strive to have all mesh around the perimeter of the building, no solid sides because that will hamper the ventilation. Once the birds are not properly ventilated, they won’t eat as much feed… and biosecurity is very, very important,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile, Discovery Bay Community Council member and poultry farmer, Sanyah Johnson, said the training provided participants with practical information that will strengthen their poultry operations.

“There are things that we didn’t understand, so we got to learn about them today. We learned how to take care of the chickens before they are sold… the proper housing, lighting, watering and feeding as well. It was a good experience for us,” Ms. Johnson said.

The poultry initiative forms part of the JBI’s Bauxite Community Development Programme, which supports agriculture, education, infrastructure and other community development projects in Jamaica’s bauxite-producing communities through partnerships with public and private-sector organisations.

- JIS News

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