On June 9 the brand-new National Poultry Training Centre in Bishoftu will officially be opened in the presence of the State Minister of Livestock; Dr. Gebreegziabher Gebreyohannes, the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Netherlands to Ethiopia; Mrs. Lidi Remmelzwaal, the Director of the EIAR; Dr. Fantahun Mengistu and the chairman of the Ethiopian Poultry Development Association, Mr. Fanta Terefe.
The demonstration facility is the result of a unique cooperation between Ethiopian stakeholders and the Dutch poultry-sector, and is the first demonstration location of its kind in Ethiopia. With the kick-off of a Training-the-Trainers (ToT) program, the training centre will be educating trainers and poultry farmers in modules like Poultry Production, Animal Nutrition, Animal Health and Didactics.
The future for Ethiopian poultry farming looks promising, and this is reflected in the increased attention and participation of Ethiopians in the business. With the opening of the training centre, a next step has been taken to support Ethiopian poultry farmers with increasing the productivity of their farms and delivering products of high quality.
The centre’s demonstration hardware is provided by the Holland Africa Poultry Partners, a group of companies representing the Dutch poultry-sector, which is known for its innovativeness and high-quality poultry-value chains.
As Mr. Jan Kampschoer, Chairman of the Holland-Africa Poultry Partners argues: "Ethiopia is currently showing high economic growth figures and this is set to continue in the coming years. The poultry sector could play an important role in this path to growth and at the same time contribute to erasing pressing food security issues’’.
The Holland-Africa Poultry Partners’ vision is shared by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, the Ethiopian Poultry Development Association (EPDA), the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and the Netherlands Embassy, who agreed that, in order to develop the local poultry value chain, one should actively engage the private sector.
After several years of careful planning the combined efforts have resulted in the development of the National Poultry Training Centre, which consists of three houses demonstrating Good Case Practices in poultry farming and an accompanying training-program.
Source: Netherlands-African Business Council
