Ethiopian government and a consortium of Dutch businesses are partnering in a poultry institute which vies to hatch chicken breeds. The National Poultry Training Centre, which will operate under the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), was officially launched on June 9, 2015 in Bishoftu, Debre Zeit. The government contributed €173,000 and equipments worth €250,000 were donated by the Dutch government and Holland-Africa Poultry Partners (HAPP). The equipments include: housing and feeding equipment by Vencomatic Group & VDL Agrotech, solar energy equipment by Alius Energy, and hatchery equipments. Courses to be given at the EIAR include: Poultry Feeding and Feeds, Health Management, Hatchery Management and Poultry Equipment Management. HAPP is a partnership of companies, NGOs and knowledge institutes from the Netherlands with an interest in the international poultry market with focus at providing knowledge seminars about commercial and sustainable poultry farming, practical training sessions, the set up of training and demonstration farm, incoming and outgoing trade missions and participation in poultry trade fairs. The plan is to train smallholder farmers annually as well as to deliver 3.2 million chickens to small and medium poultry enterprises in five years’ time, including egg layers and broilers. According to local representative of Netherlands-Africa Business Council, shortage of quality and affordable feed, vaccines, chicken inputs, breeds and training are behind the low productivity in the poultry sector while other constraints are low breeding species, endemic diseases and lack of skilled manpower.
http://www.agribusinessafrica.net/index.php/2389-national-poultry-training-centre-launched-at-9-7-million-birr