From the Field

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

University Poultry Scientists Help Poultry Farmers Train Peers

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – The World Poultry Foundation (WPF) recently concluded the second phase of a landmark multiyear project to improve poultry and egg production in Ghana by teaching a small group of producers to train other producers with a long-term goal of boosting the industry’s husbandry capabilities.

Funded by the WPF in partnership with the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, this “train-the-trainer” program taught local poultry farmers how to produce chickens more efficiently, with particular emphasis on improving biosecurity to help prevent the spread of disease.

Faculty members from the University of Georgia (UGA) Poultry Science Department traveled to Ghana to work with Dr. A.N. Akunzule, the ministry’s deputy director of veterinary services, in setting up and conducting the training, which began in 2015.

Under the direction of Dr. Mike Lacy, former department head and professor emeritus of poultry science at the university, the team included Drs. Bruce Webster and Justin Fowler, both veteran UGA poultry scientists.

In the second phase of the program, Webster and Fowler evaluated the prior train-the-trainer sessions from last year by how well the Ghanaian participants were able to present their knowledge and training materials to other chicken growers in their regions.

The more than 30 Ghanaian poultry farmers who trained under the UGA poultry scientists over the next several months will train an additional 480 producers in seven regions of the country, WPF says.

“As we expand this effort in Ghana, we expect thousands of producers all across Ghana to benefit,” said WPF CEO Randall Ennis. “We began the program in Accra and Kumasi, the country’s two most important poultry-producing areas.”

“The brooding basics I received from the training have improved my brooding practices, and that has greatly reduced mortality in the last broilers I raised,” said Patricia Ashanti, who raises chickens near Accra, the capital. Josiah Kingsful, also of Accra, said that the training has helped him “to intensify my biosecurity at the farm to eliminate the carriers of diseases.”

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.