THE Anambra State Governor, Mr. Willie Obiano,
has approved N13 billion (about $61 million) to
bring investments into commercial poultry
farming as part of his efforts to turn the state into
a model for agriculture.
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
at the Governor’s Lodge with Lynden Integrated
Farms Ltd for the establishment of a modern
poultry production and processing farm in the
state, Governor Obiano emphasised that
agriculture remains the number one pillar in his economic agenda.
He said that the proposed ultra-modern poultry
farm, which will be located on a seven hectares
of land at Igbariam, would generate no fewer
than 250 jobs during construction and 200
permanent jobs as well as 2,000 indirect jobs
subsequently.
According to the governor: “At the moment, all
the day-old chicks sold in the South-East are
brought in from Oyo State.
We want to change
that.
We want all the day-old chicks sold in this
area to come from Anambra State.”
He further said that his plan was to approach
agriculture in two areas – create a favourable
and sustainable environment for commercial
agriculture to thrive and to roll out programmes
that will upgrade the class of machete and hoes
wielding farmers to adapt to the use of new implements and improved seedlings.
During the signing ceremony, the Chairman of
the firm, Mr. Clem Nwogbo, said that his company
plans to develop a two-phased modern
integrated poultry production and processing
farm with day-old chicks and then subsequently
upgrade its facilities in order to provide high quality meat, eggs from layers and fresh and
frozen poultry meat from broilers.
“The first phase of this facility will comprise the
setting up of 200,000 broiler houses with eight
pens, 93,000 layer house with three pens,
33,000 pullets house with one pen, 2,000 birds
per house slaughter house and a feed mill.
We
plan to double the production capacity of this farm by extending the broiler and layer houses
to accommodate 400,000 broilers, 186,000
layers and 66,000 pullets after three years of full
operation of the first phase,” Nwogbo further
explained.
According to him, Lynden Integrated Farms
Limited has the capacity to position Anambra
State as the centre of excellence in poultry
farming in the South-East and South-South.
Thanking Governor Obiano for creating the
enabling environment that has encouraged
investors to flock to Anambra State, Nwogbo
explained that the firm was committed to
commissioning the facility 15 months after the
turning of sod on the proposed site.
He further revealed that the company plans to
implement a robust CSR programme which will
encourage the adoption of the best practices in
poultry farming to small scale farmers, support
educational initiatives in the host community and
supply day-old chicks to farmers under and out- grower scheme.
Earlier, the Chairman, Anambra State Investment
Promotion and Protection Agency and
Traditional Ruler of Umuoji, Igwe Cyril Enwezor,
said that the equity ratio of the company is 90
per cent for the investing company, six per cent
for the state government and four per cent for the host community. Obiano
