By Thoboloko Nts’onyane
BEREA- TKM Agricultural Solutions, a local poultry training and capacity building consultancy, is conducting a five-day training workshop for poultry farmers in the Sekamaneng Development Center, in Berea.
The majority of the participants are Basotho women drawn from different villages around Maseru.
Chief Executive and trainer Mr. Ts’iu Malefane emphasized the importance of the training, stating that poultry is the second most widely eaten type of meat globally, adding that the eggs provide nutritional benefits that contain high-quality protein accompanied by a low proportion of fat.
He further mentioned that utilizing poultry farming lessens and alleviates poverty while scaling down the rate of unemployment in the country.
Malefane raised his intention of wanting to make poultry farming a large segment of agriculture in Lesotho and appealed to the government to support TKM Agri solutions and the trained farmers in their envisaged intentions of elevating poultry production in the country projects.
The training was also designed to be a competency level training addressing the expectations, aspirations, and needs of participants for result-based outcomes post the workshop.
According to the facilitator, the participants are provided with a training manual written in Sesotho that covers the overall rearing content, such as housing, chick placement and brooding, disease management, biosecurity, medication, feeding, slaughtering, packaging, and marketing.
The workshop was further aimed to equip trainees with knowledge and skills on poultry production for both broilers and layers.
Also, the participants are equipped with commercial broiler layer production that includes basic record-keeping and simplified financial management, marketing, among others.
The farmers expressed satisfaction promising to implement the skills and knowledge they have acquired at the training.