daniel chigunwe
Ashton Mutyavaviri
WITH calls for farmers to increase productivity and profitability in their various farming sub-sectors, poultry farmers in Harare have moved to set up the Harare Poultry Business Cooperative Company (HPBCC) that seeks to foster collaborations among farmers and the pooling of resources to make operations easy.
Such partnerships are known to reduce input costs while enhancing productivity.
In an interview at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS) last week, HPBCC business manager, Mr Mapurani Chitsuro said the cooperative had 700 farmers producing between 50 000 and 70 000 broilers per cycle.
The cooperative has since extended its tentacles to Mashonaland East and West provinces in addition to Harare.
“It is our hope that we reach other provinces across Zimbabwe and increase poultry production as a country,” he added.
He said the cooperative was riding on the advantage of its large membership to negotiate for discounts when acquiring poultry inputs from stockists.
“We negotiate for a 7 percent discount on behalf of our farmers from the feed manufacturers and chick producers and sell the discounted feed to the farmers. People should realise that there is power and benefits in working together. Costs are also reduced when people speak with one voice, share knowledge and do things together,.”
Mr Chitsuro said their cooperative was working towards trimming their cost of production per bird to US$3 per bird so that members can sell mature birds at US$4 or US$4, 50 each and still realise profits.
The cooperative also organises trainings for farmers doing poultry keeping.
“We invite specialists to train our farmers either physically or on our WhatsApp platforms on particular topics regarding poultry keeping,” he added.
Mr Chitsuro strongly believes that the poultry industry has the potential to grow.
“We are still growing as an industry in Zimbabwe. Poultry can be grown in various units, that is, at both backyard and large scales. The only challenge we have is feed, which constitutes 70 percent of the production cost.
“The other challenge we have is profiteering by some feed manufacturing companies that sell their products at very high prices. If the feed is excessively high, then the cost of producing one bird becomes high as well,” he said.
Mr Chitsuro also said after they had managed to fulfil the local markets they hoped to expand beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
“As an association, we hope to start exports of our birds soon,” he said.
Youths must also invest in poultry production. This is a very lucrative business that can easily generate good incomes for their general sustenance.
Online Reporter