Guineafowls
on The Ghana Experience (Ghana), 19/Jan/2011 14:50, 34 days ago
17 January 2011My work here in Bongo District Assembly involves study of some interventions identified by the district assembly of Bongo and developing strategies to promote those interventions in the district. One of the interventions identified is Guineafowl rearing. In this post I am writing about the scene of Guineafowl rearing and marketing, as observed by me here in Bongo. This post is the conversion of my article in Marathi, which I recently wrote for a Agrowon newspaper.Guineafowl is a semi domesticated bird indigenous to savanna region of West Africa. It is in the family of Chicken. Though it is semi domesticated, it is an important livelihood source for the rural population in this part of Ghana. Almost all the rural households are engaged in rearing of this bird and approximately of 25% of the average family income is derived from poultry. Amongst all the poultry birds, number of guineafowls is always the largest because of their ease in rearing. Range of number of guineafowls reared by the farmers varies from 10 to 300. One peculiarity of the economic arrangements in the households is that women and men in the house rear their birds separately. Even children who are older than 10 are encouraged by their parents to rear their own guineafowls and they are trained in this skill very early. The farmers having very less number of birds do it for meeting their consumption needs as well as meeting the expenses at the time of emergencies. The farmers who have more number of birds see it as a major source of income.Guineafowls can not be reared in the complete confinement because they have a natural tendency of scavenging. The best way to attain maximum benefits from Guineafowl is by keeping them in the semi confined state. Farmers keep the birds in the shelters in the night and provide them with some feeding and water. During the day, the birds keep roaming outside in the periphery of about 500 m from their shelter. Due to this habit of the birds, they also lay their eggs outside in the open and there is huge loss of eggs amounting to almost 90%. Farmers generally collect the eggs and get them incubated from chicken fowls. One interesting fact about egg laying of guineafowls is unlike chicken, these birds do not go into brooding state. Thus they keep on laying every day. However the egg laying season is generally from April to November.Some farmers have improved their rearing techniques. They provide the birds with more and balanced feeding and they train and keep the birds in the semi confined condition, so that they live and lay eggs in the designated places. These days some farmers use locally fabricated incubators and provide hatching services to others. Some farmers have been able to increase the laying season by better management of the birds.The birds are not all free from problems however. As they roam freely and lay their eggs in the open, there is always danger from predators and thieves. Some attention on the birds when they are moving is always helpful. Some farmers mark their birds with a unique marking system in which they cut parts of their toes in some specific designs, so that they do not get mixed with birds of other farmers. Some diseases which are commonly seen in Chicken are also observed attacking the Guineafowl. These diseases include Gumboro, Paralysis, New Castle, Coccidiosis etc. There is also common occurrence of worms and mineral deficiency. One interesting aspect with the control of these problems is that because of their scavenging habit, it is always difficult to notice the symptoms of the diseases in the birds.The birds get ready for sale in the market in 6-8 months. Under better management and with the use of fast growing breeds, one can sale the birds in 4-6 months. Some farmers buy the birds from other farmers before they are mature for sale and fatten them for 2-3 months until they are ready for sale. Generally there is a very high demand for the birds during the local traditional festivals which come mostly in the months of November and December. There is also demand during the time of Christmas, Easter and Ramadan.The marketing of birds is not a big problem though lack of standards in the market is. The price is always determined by negotiation between buyers and sellers. Farmers with very less number of birds sell it locally whereas farmers with large number of birds sell it in larger town level markets. Some traders move from one market to the other and aggregate the birds for the larger city markets. Restaurants and Kebab corners are one of the major buyers of Guineafowl.Most of the buyers and consumers in the towns prefer buying the live birds. The consumers in the cities however prefer processed or properly dressed birds and do not like to spend time in the culling and cleaning, which is obvious because of the busy lifestyle in the cities. There are some entrepreneurs who are in the business of processing of Guineafowl meat for long term preservation. The processing is done either by smoke drying method or by freezing. Smoke dried Guineafowl is more popular in the traditional markets whereas frozen meat requires refrigerated storage and transport and is more being explored in the bigger cities like Accra. The meat of Guineafowl is considered as more tasty than chicken and has less fat and almost free from chemical residues. Due to these reasons, it enjoys a niche market and does not compete with other meats in the market.Though availability of guinea fowl eggs is always a problem in the market, in the small towns during the peak season of egg laying, they are available in plenty. Some women do petty businesses by selling cooked eggs. They are also commonly used for the witchcraft. In the period of scarcity of eggs, people pay very high prices.Though Guineafowl rearing is not as developed as commercial chicken poultry sector, it is a major enterprise in this region. The farmers prefer rearing Guineafowl as it needs very low investment and the risks involved are very less. It surely has big potential to change the economy of this region.When out in the field, guineafowls make a lot of noise, but when they arrive on the plate all well cooked, they are very delicious.