By Yero S. Bah
The young entrepreneur who runs KJ Poultry Farm and a home garden had been speaking on his agricultural activities, namely poultry farming, gardening and animal husbandry; and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on his establishment, among other things.
In an interview with this online medium at his home in Tujereng village, Kombo South of West Coast Region, the KJ Poultry Farm founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Modou Sillah, recounts that upon a high school graduation from Muslim Senior Secondary School, he ventured straight into farming because not everyone could be working in the office. He disclosed that subsistence farming has been his background since his childhood days at the village.
Sillah, who had previously served as CEO of the Kaira Karantaba Youth Development Association for a year, sees entrepreneurship as one sector that could earn entrepreneurs “quick and fast” decent living; the first merit of it, he cited, is self-employment but also creating opportunities for others.
His first training was sponsored by National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI), the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Project (FASDEP), and GCAV through the EMPRETEC project where he gathered some of the basic financial, entrepreneurship and management skills he is currently implementing at his poultry farm and home garden in Tujereng village, as explained by the young entrepreneur.
Sillah indicated that he had trained two youths to be managing the Kaira Village Development Association before quitting its CEO post to become his own CEO at KJ Poultry Farm and gardening business, adding he believes in embarking on personal business adventures as they were taught by the EMPRETEC program.
The young Gambian entrepreneur is also into the rearing of ruminants which complements the poultry and gardening project. He uses the local manure from the animals and birds on his garden for the crops he grows on his garden such as okra, pepper, bitter tomatoes and spring onions.
The KJ poultry boss, who started his venture with 200 birds, was able to sell all the first badge of birds; and he has now purchased the second badge of 250 birds. Sillah is hoping to expand his poultry farm to 2,500 layers and 500 broilers, and as he told Mansa Banko Online, he’s also aiming at employing three to seven people in the near future.
He highlighted lack of capital to start business, the technical know-how of poultry management and skills in farmers, the importation of virtually everything about poultry from abroad, and marketing as key challenges that Gambian farmers are faced with.
Sillah is hopeful that if government provides feed mills in the country and establish a hatchery center, then the burden on farmers and customers would be reduced drastically in the Gambia.
Hear the young farmer: “We want to give Gambians the best poultry products as local chickens are healthier compared to the imported ones.” He lamented the serious impact of coronavirus on his poultry establishment, since it has dwindled his customer base, reasoning people are conscious, and sceptical of their spending.
Reason: Because they have no clue as to when this whole Covid-19 episode will end. Therefore, people are not spending much in this coronavirus era.”
The 2015 former Songhai agricultural trainee in Benin, used the opportunity this media availed him, to make a clarion call on the Diaspora Gambians to invest in agribusiness and poultry farming in order to create employment for their “brothers and sisters” back home.
The KJ Poultry Farm boss is of the view that not everybody should travel to the West for greener pastures. He finally advised his fellow poultry farmers in the country to effectively take care of their birds by using all the required biosecurity measures to keep their birds healthy for better marketing.
CEO Sillah is a top 20 finalist of the GIZ entrepreneurs having qualified for the Start-ups Kits, as he divulged to Mansa Banko Online Newspaper during the interview.
