Africa-Press – Uganda. About two weeks ago, Ms Beatrice Wabwire, a resident of Rugega Village in Busia District, lost 80 local chicken less than two days after a strange disease attacked her small poultry project.
“They first lost appetite, then their eyes got sunken and one-by-one, they started dying,” Ms Wabwire said on Monday.
She said a similar incident occurred last year and she lost close to 100 birds.
The farmer blamed the problem on access to vaccination which she said had been challenging for her.
Ms Wabwire, who had planned to expand her project, said the rampant death of her birds had denied her an opportunity to make money.
Ms Edith Odongo, a resident of the same village, said she had lost all her chicken to unknown diseases.
She too attributed the problem to the limited access to vaccination and lack of a good poultry house.
Preliminary findings by a team of researchers from the Uganda of Technology and Management University (UTAMU) and Makerere University has established that farmers in Buyengo Parish in Busia District, on average, lose more than 1.8 million local chicken annually.
Dr Daniel Lumonya, a senior lecturer and researcher at the UTAM, while speaking to various stakeholders at Busia District Council hall, said Buyengo Parish has 528 households, with each losing at least 17 birds each year, which totals to about 9,000 local chicken a year.
On average, Dr Lumonya said, the price per bird is Shs20,000, translating to Shs180 million annually.
He added that the Buyengo research is a pilot study aimed at improving livelihoods through better agricultural methods .
Dr Lumonya described the financial implications as “huge”, arguing that if the deaths were prevented, it would trigger massive transformation of people’s livelihoods and enhance local revenue collections.
“Right now, the government is talking of a parish model, where they plan to release Shs40 billion annually yet the birds lost surpass what is being planned for the parish,” he said.
Dr Patrick Barasa, the Busia District senior veterinary officer, said diseases, especially Newcastle disease, fowl pox and fowl typhoid, were the main cause of local chicken deaths in the district.
Dr Firminus Mugumya, a senior lecturer at Makerere School of Social Sciences, said the project intends to carry out research on local chicken and how they can be used to improve nutrition levels of children under the age of five.
He added that apart from their monetary value, rearing local chicken would make eggs and chicken meat available to the family and hence improve nutrition at household level and reduce retarded growth among children under the age of five.
Mr Samson Okello, a retired agriculture officer and a resident of Buyengo, commended the study, saying it would improve poultry farming in the district.
“As a community, we have been losing a lot of chicken and hope this project will help farmers adopt better methods of handling local chicken,” Mr Okello said.
