How to start poultry farming business in Nigeria (Cost and Challenges)
Poultry farming is one of the lucrative sectors of animal production, once there is availability of capital (because it requires large capital) and little knowledge you should expect six figures profit every week or month.
Poultry is general terms for all domestic birds, if you are intending to go into poultry farming that means you want to take all the niches at a time while this is good I will not advice it if you are a newbie but for those that already have knowledge in one niche or the other you can ride on.
Whether you a newbie who does not know anything about poultry farming or professional who want to know more about how poultry farming in Nigeria I want to assure you that every aspect of this business will be touched in this article; from niches of poultry farming to it cost and challenges, everything will touched in detail.
Niches of poultry farming in Nigeria
As I stated in introduction, poultry farming in Nigeria has many niches that can be venture into and they are
Note: it is the group of this niches that give rise to the term poultry.
Broiler farming business
Broilers are flightless bird reared for the purpose of their meat and usually between 6 to 12 weeks.
It is the most lucrative niches in poultry production but as expected the most lucrative is the most risky, make sure you have the required knowledge and capital before going into it.
To read more on broiler farming business click here
Layers/egg production
Layer farming is the rearing of flightless bird for egg purpose. Though layers farming is not as risky as broiler the duration for profit is long and takes time before you can break even, it is also capital intensive
Cockerel/Noilers
Cockerel and Noilers are reared for meat; they take about 5 to 6 months before reaching market weight. it has low susceptibility to disease which means low risk
You can combine it with broiler or layers
Turkey farming
This is capital intensive, even more than broiler production, if you want to go into this niche you have two options you can choose to rear local or foreign turkey, the deferent between them is that local turkey takes time before reaching market weight but they are less susceptible to disease while foreign turkey reach market weight quickly.
Quails and others
Though the above niches are what most people know it is actually more than that and one of them is quail. If you will go into quail or other niches make it a supporting ventures not what you set out to do.
How to start poultry farming in Nigeria
1) Feasibility study
The first thing to do is to go out and research about the feasibility of poultry production because your friend succeeds with it in one location does not guarantee your own success.
Check if there is market for your product, the number of people doing what you are doing, how will you set your business apart from the competitors and lastly location, is it suitable for poultry business.
Location will be further dealt with in the next step
2) Location
Location can mar or make your business, usually at a start you will rent a pen but if you have enough capital, you can buy land and build your own, whatever you chose make sure your farm is far from residential area because of the offensive odor which characterize poultry farming.
You should also put the following into consideration
- Is the location pliable by vehicle?
- How far is it from your customers?
- What of your staff will they like the location?
3) Business plan
This is not compulsory, but if you want to take your business serious you should write a business plan that can get you loan and If you don’t intend to take loan it will serves as a guide to whatever plan you have for your poultry business, don’t tell me you want to stay small forever.
4) Select a system
There are three system of raising poultry birds it is all the same in all the niches and they are
Extensive system
In this system birds are allow to fend for themselves, no care from their owner and as a result there is low productivity and that if they did not die or cart away by thieves. It is not suitable for commercial poultry production.
Semi intensive
In semi intensive birds are allow to roam freely but in an enclosed place. Little care is given to them and also there is low productivity.
You can use this system to raise broiler, cockerel and turkey but make sure to provide them with good quality feed and shelter that will guide them from adverse weather.
Intensive system
If you are setting up commercial poultry farming this is the best system you should chose. In this system birds are housed in door and optimum care is given to them. Though it is costly, you will have high production.
5) Build pen
Building poultry pen require knowledge I will advise you to give this aspect to an experience pen builder, but not withstanding poultry house should contain the following
- Pen that will house birds
- House that workers will live
- Office where you will attend to customers
- Fence and gate
Your poultry pen should have the following features
- Floor, made of concrete so as to give protection against wetness
- For proper ventilation the poultry house should have a width of 10m (36ft)
- Maximum length of the pen should be 120m
- The wall of the pen should be 1/3 of the total height of the pen usually at 1.8m
- The roof should be made with material that does not conserve heat
Set up equipment
Below are the equipment you will need in poultry farming
- Feeders
- Drinkers
- Cages crates
- Nest
- Heaters
- Brooders guards
Supporting equipment
- Water tank
- Wheel barrow
- Feed burns
- Feed scoops
- Drinker stand
- Bracket
- Incenerating drum
6) Stocking
Stocking can cause the downfall of your business so do not take it with levity hand. Procure day old from reputable hatchery, please do not mind the cost it is better to have high cost but heathy birds, than to lose your investment because of little difference in the cost of DOC (Day old chick)
7) Feeding
If you are a newbie do not engage in feed formulation buy quality feed outside and as your business grows you can embark on feed production.
Poultry farming is garbage in garbage out, whatever you feed your bird is what you will get from them.
Feed conversion ratio of birds is 2: 1 i.e. your birds will eat 2kg of feed to produce 1 kg of meat, if you feed them well you will have good feed conversion ratio
8) Staffing
Before stocking you should have get employee on ground because you can’t do it alone unless your capacity is below 100 birds. When hiring interview them very well and be patient.
Hire experience and trustworthy person, the secret of hiring is to hire base on recommendation.
9) Provide a suitable brooding pen
When receiving birds from hatchery you will need to provide them with heat from week 1 to week 4 depending on the types of bird (you brood broiler for 1 week while you brood layers and other for about 4 weeks).
The brooding pen should be cover to the top such that there is little room for heat escape.
10) Management practices
Below are the management practices you need to do
- The house should have adequate space
- Provide a footbath where visitors will deep their leg before entering the pen to prevent disease
- Provide feed and water
- Vaccinate and medicate on time
- If you can do above management practices well you will have little or no concern for mortality
11) Marketing
Marketing which simply means putting product in front of buyer should not be hard, if you do your feasibility study well; you would have known the best marketing channel for your product
Below are the advertisement channels to use
Flyer
Do not overlook flyers, it is the first advertisement medium to use if you want people around you to be aware of your business and also your family and friends can easily help you with it distribution.
Signpost
Signpost will direct people to you and also serve as awareness to passerby. Erect it in a major junction that lead to your farm
Social media
Create a social media account and post picture of your animal regularly, before you know people will start contacting you.
Build a website/blog
Build a website that will house your product with content that will derive traffic to it you can contact us for that.
Cost of stating a poultry farm in Nigeria
It depend on your niche and your scale of production
For broiler production you will need about #200,000 to raise 100 birds for 6 weeks
For cockerel you will need about #150,000 to raise 100 birds for 6 month
For layers you will need about #100,000 to raise 100 birds till they will start producing eggs
Profitability of poultry farming in Nigeria
Poultry production is very lucrative though it depend on your business model and your niche. For broiler niche; if you want to be selling your birds alive you should be able to get between 30 % to 50% profit margin.
If you step up your game and engage in processing plus packaging you will see between 60% to 100% profit margin.
Challenges of poultry farming in Nigeria
1) Diseases
This is the major problem of poultry farming in Nigeria and another problem is that most of these disease are not curable you can only prevent them if you setup a good management practices (biosecurity measure).
2) Offensive odor
Poultry farming is reeks with bad odor this is one of the reason you need to set it up away from residential area but what to do when your location later become developed.
What I used to tell people is to always have another place ready in case their location later developed or they should set up their farm in an area designated by government as farm settlement.
3) Selling
For broiler and cockerel niche, if you sell your birds alive you will see less profit and sometimes you might not even make any profit.
The solution is to go into processing.
And for layers niche (egg production), you might sell you egg at loss in the glut. The solution is to not over price your egg during egg scarcity this will make you have a loyal customer who will buy from you during egg glut.
4) Stealing
There is know how, your staff will steal your egg or birds. The solution is to give them eggs every week, for broiler give them chicken after each production cycle and do not forget to hire trustworthy person.
5)Marketing
Make sure you know whom you are producing for before embarking on poultry farming or else you might sell your egg or birds at lower price due to desperation.