FAO Funds Construction of Poultry Housing and Slaughtering Facilities

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is providing $6.7 million for the construction of cutting edge slaughtering and poultry housing facilities aimed at increasing backyard poultry production in Jamaica.
Agriculture and Lands Minister, Roger Clarke, who made the announcement at the opening of the FAO’s Regional Backyard Development Workshop today (July 24) at the Hotel Four Seasons, informed that the project would increase the efficiency and income potential of backyard poultry operators, reduce pre-maturity losses, provide for disease control, and increase the capacity of small-scale operators to produce safe poultry meat at competitive prices, thereby making animal protein more accessible to persons in marginalized communities.
As part of the initiative, some 60 beneficiaries and 20 community workers, including health inspectors, agricultural extension officers and home economics teachers, will receive training in the operation of slaughtering facilities.
Beneficiaries will also receive training in improved husbandry practices to increase productivity, reduce mortality rates and improve hygiene management.
The Agriculture Minister thanked the FAO for funding the project, noting that the organization’s intervention “dovetail perfectly into the government’s stated objectives of empowering rural and marginalized people through training, and the creation of income-earning opportunities in the agricultural sector-given that it is one of the most effective engines of economic growth and development”.
“With food security and food safety now being seen as global imperatives, the FOA intervention in backyard poultry farming development is indeed timely, given that the industry provides the mainstay of the national diet, both locally and regionally, and as such, must be the key players in our journey towards food security and socio-economic development”.
He challenged the participants to “embrace the opportunities for training and self-development, which this workshop presents, and apply the knowledge gained in advanced poultry husbandry, and hygienic related slaughtering practices rigorously in your respective territories”.
In his remarks, Executive Director of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Albert Shand, noted that the project was timely. “In light of the new stipulations by the World Health Organisation and the threat from bird flu and other diseases, this means that production techniques among poultry needs to be changed,” he pointed out.
He stated that “the training component of this project is particularly important because it does not only address the needs of the participating farmers but it also addresses the technical capabilities of our extension officers. It is critical that these extension officers are trained so that they will be able to move the knowledge, move the technology, and transfer technology to areas outside of these project areas”.
He added that the construction of poultry houses and slaughtering facilities “will form a stepping stone, which will guide the production and the practices of other small farmers that are not currently under the project”.
The FAO is funding similar projects in St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.