…Wants to make poultry farming more attractive in Nigeria.

…Sensitizes, trains over 60 to access guaranteed premium market, insurance, finances.

by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna

Three main reasons many Nigerian poultry farmers are suffering, despite high demands for poultry meat or produce, have been identified and solutions proffered.

Pullus Africa Solutions Limited, an organization set out with aim to improve the livelihood of farmers in Africa, disclosed this at the launching of Agri-Tech Pullus App in Kaduna Nigeria by the company on weekend.

Pullus Africa Solutions is Africa’s first poultry-focused supply chain platform, using technology to boost local poultry production and supply chain by facilitating farmers’ access guaranteed premium market, insurance, affordable finance and others.

Speaking at the end of the official launching in Kaduna weekend, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the organization, Mrs. Opeoluwa Fayomi, said Pullus discovered three major problems after one year of intense discussion with poultry farmers.

“After one year of discussion with farmers, we discovered three major problems; those are the problems that Pullus wants to address. One is to access to premium quality markets,” she said, also adding that Pullus has set to work with 10,000 farmers in Nigeria within the next two years. 

According to her, all the farmers needed to do is to sign up on the platform and join the telegram community, saying, Pullus Africa has set out to improve the livelihood of poultry farmers in Africa.

She emphasized that, “We are the one driving the Pullus Solutions app for poultry famers. The goal is to use the Pullus Solution to improve the livelihood of poultry farmers in Africa, starting with Nigeria. 

“This is because the demand for poultry meat is on the high at the annual growth rate of over 4.1 percent between now and 2030. But when you look at it, a lot of farmers are suffering because they do not have right tools and resources to manage their businesses. 

“After one year of discussion with farmers, we discovered 3 major problems, and those are the problems that Pullus wants to address. One is to access to premium, quality markets. 

“A lot of poultry farmers are forced to sell their poultry, birds and products at a loss because they are not connected to the right market. 

“There is a lot of middlemen interference that are making the profit on this farmers, and Pullus will help to stop that by connecting them to the right market at the right time at premium prices. 

“The second issue is access to finance. Pullus wants to build credibility that will help them to access finance, even with Pullus and financial institutions at affordable rate, by giving them those credible track records that financial institutions or bodies need or seek, by helping them to safeguard their businesses.

That will also guarantee them with insurance services. The story with poultry farmer and insurance is nothing to write home about because there is a lot of mistrust on the part of the farmers with the insurance company and vice-versa, with the insurance company to the farmers.

“Pullus wants to also help to bridge that gap, in order to build the credibility that will help farmers so that, in case loss occurred, farmers can get paid of what they lost on their farms. So, with Pullus you can be able to grow more, consistently.

“This will make their profit margin to swell up, the rate at which they produce their birds will increase, and they will have all the available resources at the bake and call to do their work. So, that is what Pullus is here to do. 

“We have launched officially today with farmers in Kaduna, who we have been piloting for the past 4-5 months. The goal is to grow and work with farmers in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, until we are able to service all the 36 States in Nigeria, and we move to other African countries.

“Pullus is a profit making company. Because we have invested our time to secure market for farmers, we have entered into partnership with buyers, and our goal is to get the farmers who are going to produce the chicken and get available market for them. 

“The advantage here is that, even before the birds are ready for the market, you already know where it’s going to, and how much you are going to make. 

“From our analysis, discussion and interactions from the test pilot we have run with farmers, we discovered farmers make 30% more profits when they use Pullus than when they grow normally without Pullus and, therefore, that is enough incentives for farmers, to us. 

“We have over 3,000 farmers already in our network working with us. We have given about 300 to be able to use the platform for the past few months in Kaduna alone.

“On today’s launching, 60 farmers are available on ground for training here, which we handpicked and selected from different cluster farmer groups and location across the state to attend this, because we believe they will go back to their respective associations and groups and get others to be partakers of what Pullus has to offer. 

“Poultry is a nucleated business, especially in many parts of Nigeria. But Pullus is addressing these issues by bringing values into the farmers, because there was no incentive.

“By the time families realised they can stock their farms with 500 birds or 1,000 birds and make N200,000 or N300,000 on it within two months, their children will see it as a better opportunity than going to take up jobs of N50,000 and N60,000 outside because of the way the economy is going. 

“Most farmers were pushed out of the poultry faming after Covid-19 that was sustaining them before because of lack of births. So, Pullus wants to make poultry business attractive again for farmers. 

“Pullus is bringing values into the farmers to see that you can get more than you are putting into it, and which is all about the values the platform is going to offer to them. 

“We want to raise the bar by bringing attention of the world, FG, States, LGAs, policy makers to look at the industry, that poultry farmers need help. Pullus can do it best but cannot do everything. 

“We are also working with stakeholders, feeds companies, and archeries to see that these values get to the company, and farmers are happy with their businesses,” she explained.

Speaking at the event, a participant, Margret Ado, who has been a member of the Pullus community, testified how Pullus Solutions helped improve her profitability by 25% and she looks forward to a deeper engagement with Pullus.

According to her, the bulk of issues of low or high cost of poultry produce and sales lies or narrow down to the insecurity militating against the large-scale quality produce by crop farmers of feeds, appealing to government to do everything to end terrorism and banditry to enable people go to farms.