Invaluable insight for poultry farmers
Published on: Thursday, June 02, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: It was an eye-opening experience for a group of rural poultry farmers from Sabah, who attended an invaluable Poultry Seminar and Study Tour to Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia earlier this month.Their maiden trip was at the invitation of P.T. Medion, a pharmaceutical, vaccine and farm equipment company in Bandung.These contract farmers are currently operating broiler farming at 5,000 to 20,000 heads of broiler in the rural areas in the West Coast of Sabah, under the Sum Soon Breeding Farm Broiler Growing Scheme.
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Under the scheme, the set mission is to grow 5,000 to 10,000 heads of broiler per 40 days cycle. Sum Soon Farm supplies the chicks, feed, vaccines, medicines and technology to the farmers, and buys back the grown chicken for processing and marketing purposes. In fact, the farmers are very happy with their economic activity because they enjoy a good income from the project and thereby improve their standard of living. The contractual growing scheme brings about rural activity to the rural community, thus boosting the rural economy.
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In essence, this project helps to curb the current trend of our young populace migrating towards the cities and towns due to the shortage of jobs. During their tour, the itinerary of the poultry farmers took them to the P.T. Medion in Bandung, where they were shown the operation at the Medion vaccine plant, the pharmaceutical factory and the poultry equipment manufacturing plant.
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On their life-changing experience, the farmers said the tour was very useful and informative as they gained the most valuable knowledge from the various visits.They were invited to a seminar organised by P.T.Medion for the farmers from all over Indonesia. The seminar discussed poultry diseases and their prevention, management of good animal practices, and the physiology of broiler chicken, among other relevant aspects. It was really educational in terms of farming knowledge and practice, according to them. The group was given the opportunity to tour two broiler farms in Bogor. Indonesian poulterers grow their birds in bamboo houses, using natural bamboo slates. As bamboo and nipal leaves are abundant in Indonesia, their poultry houses are mostly made of bamboo and atap. The latter provide materials for cheap and cool poultry sheds. To their surprise, the farmers found that Indonesians consume broilers of only 1.5kg weight, and so they are only grown for 30 days and marketed, much younger than ours in Sabah which is 2.2 kg per bird.From chicken producer Alex Polinus's observation, the climate of Indonesia is much cooler than that of Sabah at 28 to 30 degrees Celsius, being towards the south whereas Sabah is constantly at 31 degrees Celsius. "In this respect, Indonesia has an advantage over us," he noted. Another chicken producer Bidin Lidau said a striking scene they saw in Indonesia was that of the two-storey chicken houses in some of the small-sized areas. "For those who have limited lands, this is what we should do in Sabah," he suggested. A counterpart Ross Justine said the most impressive thing is the way the people built the poultry shed on top of the fish pond, where the fish is fed on plankton grown from the manure. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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