By ROGERS KALERO
GOVERNMENT should assist organisations dealing in poultry to create synergies with well established Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) entrepreneurs interested in buying village chickens from Zambia,” A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has said.
Alejo Community Support Project Coordinator Alex Mutale said the poultry sector has a potential to contribute significantly to Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the sector was fully harnessed hence government should assist village chicken farmers penetrate the DRC which has a huge market for birds.
Mr. Mutale, whose organisation was based on the Copperbelt, said his organisation had in the last five years distributed over half a million village chickens to cooperatives in nine provinces.
He said Alejo Community Support Project was organising a stakeholders’ engagement meeting on November 5, 2021 with participants from the Ministry of Agriculture, academia and selected group beneficiaries and will be officiated by the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry.
“We want the Government to come and see how we are assisting in reducing poverty at household level and how we are contributing to the economic well being of the country. Our membership as Alejo is growing and we want to ensure that our members now have access to the DRC Market. “After seeing what we do, to contribute to poverty alleviation and economic well being, then we will ask government, through the Ministry of Commerce , Trade and Industry to assist us to create synergies with well established DRC entrepreneurs interested in buying village chickens from Zambia,” Mr Mutale said. And Mr. Mutale says, Alejo Community Project was also talking to unions in the extractive sector so that miners can also start venturing into village chicken as a way of enhancing their income and generating extra funds
