Cameroon purchases Israeli heat resistant chickens

Members of the Inter-Professional Poultry Farmers were trained in the techniques of poultry production in Israel last month.

Through the Cameroon-Israeli Cooperation, Cameroon is trying to adopt the Israeli system whereby the private sector and the government work hand in glove.

Through business contacts with Cameroonian economic operators in the field of veterinary medicine and poultry breeding, an accord was signed with Israel that would permit Cameroon to buy bird vaccines such as Newcastle and Gumboro from Israel at a relatively cheap price.

Israel being an arid zone with temperatures as high as 45 degrees produces 300 million chickens per year for a population of about 7.2 million while the population of Cameroon staggers between 15 and 18 million.

Political will
According to Dr. Ebode Sylvain Blaise, Director of Development Productions and Animal Industries at the Ministry of Livestock Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, the political will is there for the project to start off.

He said that the poultry sector in Cameroon has been operating in dispersed ranks with lack of coordination of projects. He noted with dismay the disorder in the poultry sector where no one gets authorisation to start a farm.

Blaise announced that with the creation of the agricultural bank underway, farmers would benefit from low interest loans and poultry farming would readily to take off.

He said with the Israeli assistance, the sector would turn a new page to work with the private sector.