Women beneficiaries of Layers under RFJs laud government

Women in the Bolgatanga municipality who were given layers under the government’s flagship programme, rearing for food and Jobs (RFJs) have started reaping fruits of the business.

The women, who received 120 layers each at the later part of 2022, said they were making good sales of the eggs but had to use most of their proceeds to buy feed and medicines for the fowls.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, some of the women complained about the hot weather, from March to May, which was contributing to the high number of deaths among the birds

Ms Linda Adongo, from the Soe community, said the harsh weather caused stress and deaths of some of the birds and also affected egg production.

She said from previous sales of eggs, she was able to buy the feed and concentrates but the current fast increasing price of the feed was a challenge.

Ms Linda who had about 99 birds out of the 120 birds, said the training given to the beneficiaries had helped her as she could prepare the feed by herself.

Each of the women was also given 12 bags of feed from the onset of the programme which gave them a good start.
“The project is very good and by the time the birds arrived, the weather was good, I made so much, I could also get some of the eggs for my children to help in their protein intake. I am grateful to the government and MoFA for the support.

Madam Aisha Mohammed from Damweo community currently has 90 birds after the unfriendly weather and stress had taken its toll, she picks two crates of eggs every four days.

She said during the first quarter of this year, she collected 120 crates to sell and out of the earnings purchased medicines, corn and soya beans for another round of feeding.

Madam Fuseina, also a beneficiary, said she lost 15 out of her share of 120 birds and made 150 crates of eggs at the beginning of the programme.

She said since she was able to prepare the feed herself, after sales of the eggs she used the income to buy the needed items to prepare the feed and also buy the medicines which presently cost about GHC 600.00, for one phase of treatment.
She said currently the birds were not laying much as the weather was too hot and she could only pick two crates of eggs per week, some of which were too small to be sold.

“I thank government for giving me the opportunity to benefit from the programme, I know we cannot get everything and also I will not be able to raise money to acquire all the birds given me but with hard work and trainings and visits from the Agricultural officers to guide me, the future is bright for me and my family.