How to start a poultry farm in Nigeria

The fact is, year after year, the demand for livestock products is fast expanding in Nigeria and across Africa

Basically, this is as a result of the rapid population growth and urbanization. In fact, as at the time of this article, we consider poultry farming one of the fastest growing segments in the Agricultural industry in Nigeria.

Choice of location
When starting a poultry investment, the location is one of the most important things you have to put into consideration.

A good poultry farm site compulsorily must be away from a busy environment. It should be a calm and pollution free environment. Also, the farm must have a clean and fresh drinking water source which must be nearby. Your poultry farm should be located in an area that is accessible, secure, and has a suitable climate for poultry farming

Choose the type of poultry
Select the type of poultry that is best suited to your resources and goals. Popular options include chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and quail.

It is important that you focus on a particular sector of poultry farming. You cannot be everywhere. You could choose between rearing chicken or turkey, or both. Whatever your choice is, you still need to choose either of the following:

Meat production
Egg production
Egg and meat production
Hatchery
Feed production
Market Research
Look at who does what you want to do well and who doesn’t. What makes them better or worse and how you can leverage their strengths and weaknesses to become a better brand in the poultry industry.

You want your customers to know you are new but better than the existing businesses. So, you also need to study who your customers are. Know what they want, how they want it, what they see in other poultry farms that make them go there. You could conduct a survey for this.

Put up a poultry farm structure
There are mainly three types of structures for your poultry. Only two are preferred, one is not recommended.

The three are:

Free roaming system Here the chicks are given the freedom to roam about and fend for themselves. It is highly not recommended since you do not have control of the birds.
The sawdust system The house where the birds are kept is filled with sawdust and the chicks can move freely about within the enclosure. The sawdust must be changed frequently in order to keep the chicks safe from disease.
The caging system Here the birds are housed in cages. Different sizes of cages for different sizes of chicks. In this battery caging system, there is always provisions for the feeding of the birds, laying of eggs and dropping by the birds. The battery caging system is highly recommended because each group of birds are housed in a separate cage that it gives the birds freedom of association but it could be more expensive. For commercial purposes, the battery caging system and the sawdust system must be large enough to give the birds freedom and good ventilation.