Muslims Association of Malawi (MAM) has recommended the poultry farming which was introduced at Gada Farm as the project which is helping in boosting the revenue of the association.
Speaking to Malawi Muslims official Website, MAM’s Project Coordinator Sheikh Farook Jumah said the project is bringing a profit of about 150 thousand kwacha per month to association.
“I can say that this is the MAM’s mile stone since it is generating some income which can be used to sustain some other projects including buying office stationery, I can confirm that we make more sales in every six weeks and after deducting other expenses, we remain with a profit of about 150 thousand kwacha,” said MAM Project Coordinator.
He also said they reduced the number of chickens currently due lack of enough space but expecting to increase the housing capacity very shortly.
“At first, we used to keep 1000 chickens but they were not doing quite good because of the space and we reduced the number to 500 but very shortly we are going to increase the housing meaning we will also increase the number of chickens,” he said.
Sheikh Jumah said MAM is very serious with Gada farm whereby it is planning to utilize every space with different farming activities including maize production
“Apart from this poultry production, we also raise goats and now we have started preparing the fields so that we can plant maize in this year’s planting season, last year we produced about 900 bags of maize from a field of 30 hectors and it was distributed in different districts and this year we are planning to plant 50 hectors of maize and we expect to produce more than we harvested last year In Shaa Allah.”
Jumah said is very optimistic that MAM will be financially independent in very few years to come through the different projects at Gada farm.
“MAM is doing anything possible to become independent financially and we asking people to be patient very soon they will see a lot coming from MAM from this farm,” he said.
However, Gada farm foreman Steve Goliyati ruled out the possibility of climate change which can contribute in poultry production observing that the rise in temperatures sometimes is extreme to the extent that livestock can hardly cope.
“Despite this successful story, climate change cannot be ruled out though it can either negatively or positively influence the production outcome and in this case we are progressing well,” Goliyati pointed out.
He said when the temperature is high, there is an outbreak of some disease which sometimes are not easily cured and asked MAM to respond to these uncertainties.
“Disease like Newcastle are common in high temperatures, which means that with climate change, poultry are bound to experience their upsurge but we are doing anything possible to make sure that no chicken is affected by any disease at the farm,” said Goliyati.
Statistics have shown that poultry production in the seven districts under the Blantyre Agriculture Development Division (ADD) has increased since 2010, despite the advent of climate change whose effects include the adverse rise in the earth’s temperatures.
MAM introduced poultry farming at Gada Farm at Chadzunda in Blantyre last with funding from Kuwait year as one of MAM’s income generating activity.
