Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery (AFSH) has inaugurated the Noiler Bird Initiative to empower rural women and youths with 10 million birds, thereby curbing poverty and malnutrition in rural communities.

This was made known on Tuesday at the formal presentation of the Noiler Bird Initiative to the media in Lagos.

The Group Managing Director, AFSH, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, said the initiative aimed at ensuring that the 90,000 children or more, whom UNICEF said could die of acute malnutrition, were safe.

Oduntan said the company’s objective was to enhance the income opportunities of rural women, while providing quality source of protein for them and their children.

The Noiler bird Initiative comprises the Mother unit for business purpose and Small Holders Farmers (SHF) for family nutrition and income.

”It is easy for us to get comfortable in the cities without being in touch with challenges facing the rural Nigeria in respect to poverty and malnutrition.

“If UNICEF says more than 240 Nigerian children die of hunger each day, it is the duty of all of us to ensure the figure is drastically reduced.

”We can’t continue to approach international communities with caps in our hands begging for alms when we have all it takes to curb hunger and poverty in a nation described as the giant of the continent.

“The majority of poor households cannot afford to buy chicken and eggs: estimates of per capita egg consumption is just 60 eggs per person annually while poultry meat consumption is about 2.3 kg per person annually,” said Oduntan.

He said it was a meagre amount compared with the recommended daily protein intake requirement of 20 grams per person a day.

Oduntan said through years of research from 2003, AFSH began looking into the production of a Dual-Purpose bird with very low maintenance, which could sustain the people and tackle the challenges they faced.

He added that the company believed that poultry for the poorest people would have an added advantage by way of regular day-to-day cash returns from sale of eggs and periodic income from sale of birds for meeting the occasional family needs.

According to him, some of the eggs can also be consumed by children of the beneficiaries for protein.

The GMD said the scheme did not require more farmland and could be accommodated within the homestead.

He said the offsprings of Noiler birds would have good disease resistance like native chicken and the fast-growing character of the bird encouraged less brooding efforts.

Oduntan explained that the birds had less fat, were tasty and had higher meat yield compared to native birds, and that Its meat was also tougher and tastier than that of commercial broiler.

The Chief Operating Officer, AFSH, Dr. Anand Burra, said the initiative would help eradicate poverty and malnutrition in the country, especially in the rural areas.

”Taking a scenario of a family of five with at least 24 Noiler birds, each member can gain additional 16grm/person/day of protein from its eggs and meat.

‘”Mother units are being set up in places closer to all rural villages across the nation to reach the small holder families effectively.

”Brooding and rearing units to take care of the chicks (for the first 5 weeks) can be supported by the government or interested sponsors, and the 5 weeks old birds weighing 500gms can be redistributed to rural families.

”The Noiler birds are affordable, enduring, and easy to rear, they produce eggs four times more than their native counterparts,” said Burra.

According to him, while the male matures to table weight of between 2.0 to 2.5 kg at 14 weeks, the native chicken takes 10 months to gain 1.5kg body weight.

Mrs Marian Adepoju, a beneficiary said Noiler birds paid more than keeping money in investment houses, and that the SHF was a form of nutrition and income for the first family.

Also speaking, Mrs Felicia Nwadiaro, another beneficiary from Rivers State, said the Noiler birds were most reliable as they had very strong resistance to diseases.
Nwadiaro said the Noiler bird could adapt to any condition just like local birds.
According to her, the initiative had taken care of local challenges and gone far into the creeks in Rivers state that was predominantly a fish area. NAN.