From the Field

Contact: Leah Mulcahy | USA Poultry & Egg Export Council | [email protected]

The goal is to improve husbandry skills among small farmers, service providers. 

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – The World Poultry Foundation (WPF) has successfully completed its first two rounds of training to improve the production skills and farm management capabilities of small poultry and egg farmers in underserved rural South Africa.

Working with the KwaZulu Natal Poultry Institute (KZNPI), the WPF retained the services of Dr. Mike Lacy, a visiting Fulbright specialist and professor emeritus of poultry science at the University of Georgia. Lacy and Walter Gwala of KZNPI facilitated the weeklong training modules, which attracted small producers, provincial extension agents, and private extension providers.

Both sessions – held at the KZNPI facility in Pietermaritzburg – were booked beyond capacity, and attracted 63 trainees.

“The students have either experience in poultry production or some level of qualification in agriculture,” said WPF CEO Randall Ennis. “With this training, they will either be involved in poultry production commercially or will be advising small, local poultry and egg farmers.”

Participants said the training will help them in their day-to-day activities. “I realize that some of the things we were doing were wrong, and that led to some of our projects failing,” said one trainee. “The content of the course was relevant to the jobs we do every day and, if we can practice what we preach, we can take the industry forward.”

The WPF will continue to sponsor additional training sessions for the remainder of 2017 and in 2018, Ennis said.

For more information, contact Richard Fritz at [email protected].

About the World Poultry Foundation

The World Poultry Foundation (WPF) is a non-profit organization founded in 1997 whose mission is to help solve hunger and poverty issues and promote economic development in distressed areas and emerging markets outside the United States through the production and consumption of poultry by empowering farmers in developing regions.