Starting a Poultry Business in Nigeria

Poultry farming is a branch of agriculture that has to do with rearing of domesticated birds like chicken, guinea fowl turkey e.t.c for the purpose of getting meat or eggs for sale. Agriculture is very important in a country especially in this part of the world where the population keeps increasing everyday. Without agriculture, there is no food for the citizens in a country. Poultry is one of the most lucrative business in agriculture. People consume tons of poultry meat every day and still, the demand for poultry products is still not satisfied.

Nigeria imports approximately 80 percent of her poultry products and yet it has not been able to meet the local demand of the products.

The poultry business has different products like chicken, turkey, eggs, e.t.c. Looking at the large demand for poultry products in Nigeria, we can conclude that the market for the business is very wide and if managed and run well, it would yield a lot of money to the owner.

Poultry business is a very profitable business because everyone eats, there is no normal human being on earth that don’t eat, and most poultry products complement the food people it. A lot of people cannot do without these products and so they consume them everyday. Also, poultry animals grow very fast thereby making sales more timely, for example, it takes less than three months for an average broiler chicken to be fully grown and ready for sale. Generally, all poultry animals have a fast growth and reproduction rate.

                      THINGS TO DO WHEN STARTING A POULTRY BUSINESS

Before investing your money into a poultry business, there are some steps you make take, below are the things you must do before starting the poultry business;

                                 RESEARCH  ABOUT THE POULTRY BUSINESS

Before starting a poultry business, research is very important. You must take out time to meet with people who have a poultry farm, check out how things are done there, how the birds are being raised. Make necessary enquiries and get feedback. This will help you to plan your own poultry effectively.

MAKE ADEQUATE PLAN ON THE TYPE OF POULTRY BUSINESS YOU WANT TO START AND THE BREED OF BIRD YOU WANT TO RAISE :

The poultry farming business is a very wide business, poultry farming consists of a lot of production, meat production, rearing of chickens, egg production e.t.c. Before starting a poultry farming business, you must decide on the category or type of poultry farming you want to run. The type of poultry farming business you want to go into will determine the breed of bird you will purchase. For example you buy broiler chicken if you want to go into meat production but purchase layers if you want to go into egg production.

                                               WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN

You might wonder if you really need to write a business plan for a poultry business, but I tell you the importance of a business plan cannot be over emphasized. Many business start- ups omit this step, writing a business plan for your poultry farming is very important as it keeps you going and focus. According to Wikipedia, a business plan is a formal written document that contains business goals, methods on how to attain the goals and the time frame in which the goal will be achieved.

In simple terms, a business plan summarize your business and its goals. A well written business plan also drive investors to invest in your business. A business plan should contain;

1. Executive Summary : This is the summary of all what is in your business plan. The executive summary must be captivating enough to make people want to read your business plan. It should also contain your vision and mission statement.
2. Company Overview : This should contain who you are, your poultry business goals, how you intend to operate your poultry farm , and everything about your poultry business.

3.Products and Services : This section of your business plan contains or explains a clear description of your poultry products, the cost, description of  your suppliers.

4. Market Analysis : This describes everything about the market for your poultry products, your market research, your expectation on the market , how your products will strive in the market, your competitors. It also contains your SWOT analysis where you list your strengths, weaknesses , opportunities and threats .
5. Marketing and Sales Strategy : This section explains how you intend to market or sell your poultry product , how you will promote your business and penetrate into the market. It should also include your selling cost , promotion and advertising costs, e.t.c.
6. Business Structure : This will contain everything about your business, the type of business; either sole proprietorship, partnership or limited liability company , the number of staffs you want to hire and the intended salary.
7. Financial Analysis : After getting your market research, a professional accountant should be consulted to help prepare the financial analysis of your business plan. It should contain realistic financial information, which should include your cash flow statement, projected income statement and statement of financial position ( balance sheet ) for the next three or five years and other relevant information.
8. Conclusion : This should highlight the key strengths of your plan, remind the reader why your business is in the best position to execute the plan , and the summary of your vision and goal.

                                          

                                              FIND A LOCATION

The location of a business is very important, most poultry farms are often located in rural areas because of its cheap cost and mostly because of the odour of the poultry farm, it should not be located close to a residential area. Also, poultry business requires some reasonable amount of space. And due to health reasons, the government did not give consent to locating a poultry farming business in an urban area. However when locating your poultry farm in the rural area, you must watch out for some things;

First, you must make sure the location of your poultry farm is not too far from the city for easy transportation to potential buyers Also, you need to check out for area with a good road network.

Another thing you must consider is the cost of establishing your poultry farm in that area.

GET YOUR CAPITAL

As the poultry farming business is very profitable so also it requires a substantial amount of money to start and operate. The amount needed depends on the location of your poultry farm and the size you want to start. Poultry farming business is one of the capital intensive business in Nigeria, that is, it requires a lot of money . Below are some of the ways you can finance your poultry farming business;

1. Personal savings.
2. Get a bank loan : This is one of the most common way people finance their business, by obtaining loan from bank.
3. Crowd funding : It is the practice of funding a project by raising small amount of money from a large number of people.
4. Loans from family and friends.
5. Apply an Angel Investor: An angel investor is a high net worth individual who provide financial backings for small start-ups or entrepreneurs, typically for ownership equity in the company. They are also known as private investor or seed investor

 

   BUILD YOUR POULTRY HOUSE AND GET YOUR POULTRY EQUIPMENTS

Poultry house is very important because it affects the overall health of your birds and your business as a whole. There are three types of poultry house;

1. Deep Litter: In this type of system, it is very difficult to manage disease break out among the birds. In this house, saw dust is usually poured on the ground do the birds can feel comfortable.
2. Free Roam : This system allows the birds to roam about and feeding themselves. This system is not really good enough for a poultry business that wants to operate at a wider scale because the birds are not secured, they could be killed or stolen.
3. Battery Cage : In this system, the birds are kept in a cage which are separated into various compartments and are given food regularly basis. This is the system most poultry farms use because it is very organized and effective.

Apart from the poultry house, the poultry requires many facilities and equipments like incubators, lighting system, egg trays, drinkers, feeders  e.t.c.

                       GET POULTRY BIRDS FROM TRUSTED HATCHERY

After setting up your poultry house, then you can start buying birds. You can buy your birds when they are a day old or you can by an averagely grown one. Whichever one you want to buy, make sure that they are healthy, that is why it is advisable to buy your birds from trusted hatcheries so as not to run at a loss. And immediately they get to your farm, make sure you give them the first vaccine. Some hatchery even give vaccine when you buy from them.

 

GET YOUR POULTRY FEEDS

This is very important to the health of your birds as without food, they will not survive. The birds need to be fed regularly as this is what will make them grow. Poultry feeds account for about 80 percent of the expenses you will incur in your business because their feeds is very essential to the survival of the birds and the business as a whole. You can either buy the feeds or manufacture them yourself. Also, when choosing the feeds, you have to be very careful because there are a lot of feeds out there. You have to get or manufacture the one that will supply the birds the essential nutrients they need to grow.

                GET MEDICATIONS AND VACCINES FOR THE BIRDS

You have to ensure that the birds stay healthy as their health is very important. You would have to periodically spend money on medications and vaccines to make sure that the birds are healthy. It also helps to prevent the spread of disease amongst the birds.

HIRE PEOPLE

One man alone cannot run the poultry business, you need people to work with you. You need people to take care of the poultry house because the poultry house has to be clean at all time to prevent outbreak of disease, feed the birds e.t.c.

                                        START RAISING YOUR BIRDS

After all necessary things have been put in place, then you can start raising your birds. Make sure that the birds are fed well and they are taken care of and are been given their medications and vaccines. Also, make sure that their house, the poultry house is always kept, don’t allow people into your poultry farm anyhow to prevent the spread of disease to the birds. Also, when any form of disease is noticed, they should be treated with immediate effect because disease can kill all your birds and make your business sink. In general, the health of the birds should be your utmost priority.

                                                    START SELLING

This is the point where you begin to make sales, when the birds are fully grown to a stage that they can be sold, then you can start selling them. Also, if you are raising layers, when they get to a point they cannot lay eggs again, you sell them.

                                GROW YOUR POULTRY BUSINESS

As you continue to make more sales, you can expand the scope of your poultry to a commercial poultry business and you will definitely make more profit because there are little or no commercial poultry farming business in this country. There are many poultry farming business in Nigeria, but because they operate on a small scale, we have to import poultry products to satisfy the demand of the people. Also, you have to make your poultry farming business known to people so as to make more sales, you have to build your name. There are many ways to do this, some of them; advertising your poultry business on a local radio, by giving discounts to customers, printing and distributing small handbills to people, advertising on bill boards e.t.c.

                                                       CONCLUSION

Poultry business is a very good business to do if you have all what it takes. You will not regret doing it.

NOTE: This article was first published http://www.bullscapitalltd.com

                                    

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR     

Damilola Babatunde has a great passion for writing. She write articles on starting a business, how small business owners can grow their business e.t.c and many small business owners have really benefitted from her write ups.

 

 

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