About 40 women in Nabouwalu, Bua had the opportunity to receive skills training in advancement of poultry farming this week.
The training has been facilitated by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation in line with the International Women’s Day celebrations in Bua to enable the women to get first hand information and training to pursue poultry as source of income.
Senior Agricultural Officer and coordinator for the poultry training, Mr Makalei Drauna revealed that three primary purposes of the training as follows:
- to understand the value of the income generating projects, “what it means to you and your family.”
-the need to have continuous motivation to strive for quality and consistency in supply
-third being the required competencies and empowerment of women in poultry as their source of income
“Women need motivation and therefore the participants are encouraged to realise the value of any income generating to them and their families while walking out of poverty,” Mr Drauna said.
According to the trainer, there is a huge demand for poultry in the Northern Division with price ranging from $35 to $45 for chickens in the Labasa market.
Lanieta Catanasiga, one of the participants, who graduated from the School of Agriculture last year said she was passionate about developing a poultry business for herself.
“Women in Nabouwalu have lot of potential in agriculture and I for one would like to undertake poultry as a business for myself. The lessons learnt through this training have been motivational and we have learnt skills on how resources should be managed and using of natural resources for chicken feeds,” she said.
Sharing similar views, Ema Vakabu from Bua said the training had been an eye opener for her in terms of the potentials for economic growth through poultry farming.
“Back in the village, poultry is a source of income for my family and through the skills learnt I can now plan well in terms of using cheaper means of running the business and finding markets and all these skills will help me to boost my family income. And we thank the Government and the ministry for providing the skills training,” Vakabu added.
The Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation has targeted to develop 15 poultry projects this year and is pursing to develop a centre in Bua to provide the ongoing skills training and financial empowerment of women in the Northern Division.
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