Online Reporter
Muchaneta Chimuka-Herald Reporter
THIS year’s Zimbabwe Agricultural Show witnessed a massive increase in the number of poultry exhibitors, with 269 farmers showcasing a variety of breeds.
These ranged from Brahma, Orpington, Cochin, Bantam, Indigenous, Perkin, Australorp, to the first exhibition of twin ostriches — a male and female owned by Chief Nenguwo of Marondera West.
The number of poultry exhibitors has doubled in comparison to last year, where there were only 105 farmers.
The two ostriches were a centre of attraction at this year’s agricultural show as crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of the big birds.
Chief Nenguwo’s wife, Mrs Nyaradzo Shonhai, said she started ostrich production for domestic tourism.
“We have brought twin ostriches for the first time at this year’s agricultural show and we have witnessed a massive response from farmers who want to participate in the industry,” she said.
“They are easy to rear as they do not require commercial stock feed. They eat anything from the house, from leafy vegetables, grains, kitchen left overs and they are disease tolerant.
“The ones we brought for the show have the capacity to produce 125kg of meat and they are a year old.”
She said local tourists visit their homestead to see the big birds and that the only challenge is that they need enough space since they grow and become huge animals like cattle.
Some children at the show were given the opportunity to ride on them — a fascinating adventure.
Ms Beauty Jiji, chief executive of Zimbabwe Free Range Poultry Association and a member of the ZAS Livestock Committee, said it was crucial to leverage on the growth of the poultry sector for economic development and empowerment.
“We have seen an increase in terms of the number of exhibitors compared to the past years and the number of entries.”
“This year we have about 11 exhibitors and we have over 200 entries from the 11 exhibitors, that is the farmers that are entering to compete,” she said.
“This is a significant jump from the previous year. This is because we are educating and partnering with more farmers to take up poultry production as a business.”.
Ms Jiji said this year most farmers were exhibiting indigenous birds as compared to previous years whereby more focus was put on exotic birds.
“We have seen a diverse number of poultry ranging from exotic birds, road runners, ostriches from Chief Nenguwo’s clan, guinea fowls, turkeys and quails,” she said.
“We want to curb the extinction of our indigenous birds hence we are educating and empowering communities on the importance of such birds to our African diet. They are not labour intensive as they feed on locally produced feed and are disease tolerant.”
Ms Jiji said farmers could utilise a small portion of land for poultry production and they can be housed with other friendly livestock (Kumusha Mix) and get huge returns within a short period of time.
She said road runners can actually go out and scavenge.
Ms Jiji urged farmers to go for indigenous poultry production as they are drought tolerant.
“We are encouraging farmers to rear guinea fowls as they consume very little compared to other birds,” she said.
“We also work with the Grain Marketing Board to help us to get enough feed for our livestock and encourage farmers to grow more small grains.”
Through poultry production, she said, farmers could get eggs and meat for own consumption.
Ms Jiji said her association was also exploring ways to produce black soldier fly for poultry feed.
The black soldier fly is rich in protein.
The production of black soldier fly could help farmers save on production costs by up to 40 percent.
