The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Inclusive Poultry Value-Chain (IPVC) project has set up five Poultry Business Units (PBUs) in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Masvingo and Gweru whose purpose is to provide poultry value chain services to co-ordinate poultry producer groups.
That range from bulk input procurement, own farm feed formulation and milling services, collective marketing, joint access to financial services and extension services.
The IPVC project is part of a larger EU-funded Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP) that was launched in the country in June 2019.
The 40-million-euro initiative seeks to boost the beef, dairy, pig, goat and poultry production, complemented by ZAKIS which is mandated to work with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement to coordinate market-oriented education and extension services across the five value chains.
In an interview, IPVC head of project Mr Joseph Matiza said each cluster acts as an administration and coordination unit for the collective action by small and medium poultry producers.
“The IPVC project has established Poultry Business Units (PBUs) in five clusters of Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo, Mutare and Harare.
“This effort is enabling poultry producers to gain economies of scale and scope to access extension, inputs, financial and market services in a more convenient and overall profitable manner,” said Mr Matiza.
He said 2 484 producers are registered with the poultry business association units across all clusters in the country and cumulatively 183 822 day-old chicks and 1 491,320 tonnes of subsidised feed from private stock feed manufacturers have been sold to members.
To further bring the services of the PBUs close to producers, Mr Matiza said sub-PBUs have also been established in Domboshava, Norton, Umzingwane, Mashava, Kwekwe, and Chikanga.
“Together with the five PBUs the sub-PBUs offer services that include bulk input procurement, mobile slaughtering, transportation, capacity building, access to markets, collective marketing, joint access to financial services and extension services,” said Mr Matiza.
He said all five PBUs are offering mobile slaughter and plucking equipment to members of poultry business associations.
Mr Matiza said, in an endeavour to promote decent clean markets for poultry farmers, four live birds and egg market sheds are under construction in Masvingo (Chitima market), Mutare (Chikanga market), Kwekwe (Mbizo market) and in Goromonzi, for providing PBU members with a physical market space for poultry products trading.
“The sheds have a minimum capacity of 1 000 birds. The live bird markets and butcheries are set to be fully functional by 31 October 2021.”
In addition to the physical markets, each PBU is being supported to establish a cold chain facility, to enable PBU member trading in the dressed bird market channel.
In terms of the green technologies, Mr Matiza said 30 solar powered incubators were installed in all clusters to promote green technologies.
“At least nine photovoltaic lighting systems are set up to lengthen the day for layer chickens, to increase egg productivity.”
The IPVC project has to date trained 9 323 poultry farmers and Agritex officials on good agricultural practices across all five main PBUs including their sub-PBUs.
