Supermarkets discriminating against local egg suppliers – GAPFA

Major supermarkets in the country are being accused of putting in place discriminatory barriers that hinder the ability of local producers of eggs to have their produce on their shelves.

The comments come on the back of research conducted by Konfidants, an international business advisory firm, which showed a sharp decline in Made-In-Ghana eggs on the shelves of top supermarkets in the country from 93%, in 2019 to 55% in December 2020.

The research, which surveyed nine of the leading supermarkets and two fuel stations in Accra on 19 product categories in December 2020, showed that only 26 percent of all the goods sold by these supermarket chains were made in Ghana.

The research conducted by Konfidants also showed that this is, however, an improvement on the 2019 survey when only 18% of goods surveyed were Ghanaian products.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the results of the survey, President of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Michael Nyarko–Ampem said the multinationals are finding ways to cut local producers out.

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Koudijs Ghana launches its new local complete feed to improve local poultry production

As part of efforts towards improving access to the right poultry feed for poultry farmers, Koudijs Ghana Limited has launched its complete layer feed to help improve chicken production in the country.

The new high-quality feed, which is produced locally, is expected to provide farmers and their animals with the right and strictly controlled nutrients in the most balanced ratios.

Access to feed has over the years been a challenge for poultry farmers in Ghana, with local agents only managing to produce about fifty-seven thousand metric tonnes, which is way below the national demand of about four hundred thousand metric tonnes every year.

Speaking to Citi Business News, General Manager of Koudijs Ghana Limited Hugo Visscher, said the introduction of the product will make poultry production in Ghana less difficult and help farmers increase poultry yield.

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GREEN GOLD FARMS DELVES INTO ORGANIC CEREALS PRODUCTION

Green Gold Farms, Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization has acquired over 10,000 hectares of land across the country to cultivate organic soya beans, cowpea and yellow maize to create job opportunities for the youth in the country.

The organization that is into mechanized farming has employed over 500 youth to produce organic cereals in excess.

The farms are located at Akropong and Okrakojo in the Eastern Region and Zakpalsi and Sekpe inn the Northern Region.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Green Gold Farms Ghana, Mr George Boakye Sarpong, envisioned a growing movement within the country to make agriculture a gateway to economic growth.

"My question has always been, in a country, where there is so much rich, fertile, arable land and abled bodies, why do we need to import so much food? Why can't we produce it ourselves and create jobs?" he stated.

Madam Christabel Dadzie, the Senior Social Protection Specialist of the World Bank, who emphasized the traditional challenges of the youth and female unemployment in the country adding that it could be solved through farming.

She stated that women had a challenge accessing jobs saying that youth unemployment and underemployment were high in the country and called for government interventions.

She said with over 250,000 young people who enter the job market each year, just about two per cennt or 5,000 find work in the formal sector which she said was nothing good to write home about.

She believed agriculture could play a major role in addressing the unemployment problem in the country and indicated that, studies conducted at the World Bank showed agribusiness was one of the highest job multipliers of any industry in the private sector in the country.

Mr Kwame Marfo, the Chief Finance Officer of the Organization, also disclosed how the company had plans of using re-generative agriculture to boost socio, political and economic growth.

He explained that the company would focus on improving soil health with practices such as avoiding the use of mineral fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and herbicides.

Mr Marfo therefore entreated farmers to cultivate on a large scale to enable them increase their earnings

Green Gold Farms, Ghana made tremendous strides on its journey.

After two years of research and development, it officially began operations in March 2020 during the first week of the global lockdown.

The organization is hoping to compete favorably with the world and generate wide social, political and economic benefits to be able to feed the country.

GHANA AIMS AT REDUCING CHICKEN IMPORTATION BY 70 PERCENT IN 2025

The Director of the Animal Production Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Edwin Bekoe, has indicated that the Ministry is poised to reduce the importation of chicken by 70 percent by 2025.

He has indicated that Ghana is currently importing $380 million worth of meat products annually with local meat production accounting for only 17 percent of the country’s meat requirements.

These statistics, he said, are disheartening and, so, an indictment on the country, hence the introduction and implementation of Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) initiative by the government.

Mr. Bekoe, speaking in an interview on the Yen Sempa morning show on Onua FM on Friday, March 19 said the RFJ policy enrolled in 2017 is focusing on addressing the challenges confronting the country’s livestock industry.

He reiterated that the government is determined to improve breed productivity and production, development of infrastructure (housing, plant and equipment, slaughtering, processing and marketing facilities), feed production and conservation of forage, animal health and disease control and development of communal grazing lands.

All these programmes, according to him, are geared towards increasing the local production whilst maintaining a success would be made but that is a gradual process.

In the same vein, he said the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme is also empowering farmers to produce more animal feed to salvage the seasonal inadequacy of feed, both in quantity and quality.

Mr. Bekoe is positive that per the success chalked so far by the implementation of RFJ, Ghana is likely to reduce the importation of chicken by 2025.

“Our target right now is that by 2025 we would reduce the import of chicken by 70%; the structures are there and we have the people, we experienced farmers who can do this.

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GOOD GUT HEALTH  STARTS BEFORE HATCH, EXPERT SAYS

by Poultry Health Today

16 March 2021

To establish good gut health, measures to promote a healthy microbiome can’t begin soon enough, an expert reports.

Speaking to Poultry Health Today at the 2019 World Veterinary Poultry Association Congress in Bangkok, Peter Ferket, PhD, professor of poultry nutrition at North Carolina State University, explained that the community of organisms that live within the gut, known as the microbiome, has a major impact on overall health.

“There are good bacteria and bad bacteria…If [gut bacteria are] symbiotic with the host or symbiotic with our system, we’re healthy. But if they’re competitive and there is a disruption in that ecosystem, then it could lead to disease, and that’s what we term poor gut health.”

The delicate balance of organisms that make up the microbiome is easily disrupted, Ferket said. Stress, pathogens, feed and other factors can easily throw it off, so it’s important to manage potential triggers and establish gut health as early as possible in the bird’s life.

“It’s very important that that young animal is basically conditioned for the environment it’s going to go into and that includes a healthy gut microflora,” the expert said.

“Another element is to feed the right nutrients not only for the animal but also for the good bacteria that grow there. You want to feed the symbiotic organisms and starve the pathogenic ones. And finally, you want to weed out the pathogens.”

In ovo feeding

Getting an early start on gut health doesn’t necessarily mean waiting for the chick to hatch, Ferket said. Embryonic chicks have their first meal when they consume the amniotic fluid in the egg before pipping and hatching. Nutrients in the amniotic fluid come from the hen, but critical nutrients are sometimes lacking, he noted.

To boost the nutritional value of the chick’s first meal, Ferket and colleagues at Hebrew University developed an experimental technique, known as in ovo feeding, whereby the amniotic fluid is supplemented with nutrients that help the chick establish a healthy microbiome when it’s still an embryo.

“When the bird hatches, it has a fully functional digestive tract, as well as a more mature gut microbiome to be able to defend against any kind of invading pathogen that may threaten the health of that animal,” he explained.

Next-generation gut health

In ovo feeding is purely a research technology at this time, Ferket stressed, and a number of challenges must be overcome before it would be eligible to go to market. Nonetheless, he underlined the “transformative” potential of the technology, noting that in ovo feeding studies have demonstrated meaningful improvements in uniformity, feed conversion, musculoskeletal development and immune function.

Genomics and artificial intelligence also have the potential to revolutionize the science and management of gut health, Ferket added.

“We have tools now that [can] scan, very inexpensively, the whole microbiome. When I started my career, it was if you can find maybe just four or five bacteria, you thought it was a great thing. Now, it’s everything and all the genes that are involved,” he said.

“It’s not humanly possible to unravel the mysteries of the microbiome. But we’re finding out that a computer…starts telling us things that we never even imagined. And that’s where I think the secret will be in the future: Artificial intelligence is going to start showing relationships we never thought possible, and we’ll see some new drugs and new applications coming from those kinds of computational analysis that we’d never [thought] imaginable before.”

Click here to watch the video ⇒ (688) Good gut health starts before hatch, expert says - YouTube

WIRELESS EGG NODE – IDENTIFY EXACTLY WHERE EGGS ARE DAMAGED

In an interview with Josh Yoshida, Co-CEO at Orka Food Technology, he explains what can happen to eggs on a conveyer system and why it's important to monitor the process.

What can happen to eggs on conveyer systems?

If the eggshell quality is not good enough or if the conveyor systems are not running smoothly or are not calibrated appropriately, many eggs can be cracked, damaged or broken while moving through the conveyer system which causes economic losses, accounting for 6% to 8% of total egg production (Hamilton et al. 1979).

What is the Wireless Egg Node?

The Wireless Egg Node™ is an electronic egg that is actual egg size which provides a real-time measure of shock, vibration, rotation, tilting and temperature that eggs are subjected to, helping to monitor egg conveying, grading and packing installations and transportation extending from laying location to point of sale. It identifies exact locations where eggs are damaged. This allows appropriate corrective action to reduce breakage and losses, thus improving operational efficiency and enhancing the profit for egg-production farms and hatching companies.

What does the Wireless Egg Node tell you about your operation?

It is very simple - run the Wireless Egg Node together with regular eggs during the whole process, from laying location to point of sale including transportation. The Wireless Egg Node comes with a tablet and the real-time data is transmitted to this tablet. Using a graph, it indicates where eggs get hits or impacts, making it possible to concentrate on taking corrective measures at those specific points. This can reduce breakage of eggshells and egg losses significantly.

How does it capture data real-time?

The Wireless Egg Node provides the real-time information about shock, vibration, rotation, tilting and temperature of the egg and creates the graph for your intuitive viewing.

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NEW ORGANIC SOLUTION EMERGES TO KEEP LIVESTOCK WATER PIPELINES PRISTINE

Keeping water lines clean on the farm is tough – whether it’s poultry, pigs, cattle, crops or aquaculture. A free range egg producer in the UK, farming 16,000 layer hens in one barn with four colonies on eight hectares (28 acres) of land, shares his experience solving the challenge of keeping his water lines clean.

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“I was looking for an alternative to caustic or acidic water line cleaning products. I’ve had several friends in the poultry industry who’ve used the incorrect dose of caustic products, and it caused damage to their flock, not just productivity loss but physical damage to the flock welfare,” he said.

If inhaled, vapors can also be very dangerous and are a serious risk to farmers and farm workers using caustic or acidic products in the workplace.

“To start, I wanted to find a replacement for our current water line cleaning product that could remove the typical buildup of biofilm and calcium carbonate in water lines that every farmer who is moving volumes of water to livestock or plants has to deal with,” he said.

Second, he wanted to find a solution that was non-toxic and ideally organic. While not an organic farmer himself, he says caring for people and the environment must be essential to everyone's business outlook in the modern world, particularly working in agriculture where farmers are at the cutting edge of environmental stewardship.

“We're dealing with living things: plants, animals, whatever they might be, so it’s really important that we always tread quite carefully and manage the best we can,” he explained. “You always get the best out of something by treating it as well as you can.”

Farm trial reveals non-toxic solution with unexpected results

After first reviewing the international research data and evidence, he decided to test Biocat+ OSAA in his own layer operation and the results were startling. Feed intake was reduced by 8%; egg production increased by 4%; and eggshell quality improved, providing a uniform, brown-colored shell.

“At the end of the trial, I had the best flock that I've ever had. All of my measurement points improved, and the welfare of the birds was better,” he noted. “I didn't use any antibiotics during the 14-month flock cycle and had no issues with flock health. The flock ran as well as it possibly could.”

Egg quality, color and weight are additional outcome measures that can maximize the flock cycle.

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BETAINE SHOWN TO STRENGTHEN CHICKEN BONES IN NEW STUDY

New research has shown that betaine, a common feed supplement, can improve bone strength in laying hens.

Adding a common feed supplement to a chicken's diet can help to improve bone strength, according to new research.

The study by the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute found that betaine – a widely used feed additive in pig, poultry and fish production – can improve bone quality in egg-laying hens that are at risk of osteoporosis.

Our results demonstrated that adding betaine to the diet of laying hens makes their bones stronger, therefore improving animal welfare of these food-producing animals.

MAISARAH MAIDIN, ROSLIN INSTITUTE

A related study by Roslin also found that selection for hens with an adaption to store calcium - a process known as mineralisation of the medullary bone - could also improve bone quality.

The timing of puberty may also play a role in bone strength, the second study suggests. Researchers say the findings, published in British Poultry Science, could aid poultry producers in deciding which animals to breed.

Maisarah Maidin from the Roslin Institute explained: “Our results demonstrated that adding betaine to the diet of laying hens makes their bones stronger, therefore improving animal welfare of these food-producing animals.”

In the study, researchers fed chickens one of four diets containing different amounts of dietary betaine until they stopped laying eggs. Bone and blood samples were analysed at various stages throughout the process.

The team found that the addition of dietary betaine improved bone strength in laying hens. They also noted that egg quality and production were unaffected by the dietary treatments.

Dr Natasha Whenham, research and development manager at AB Vista, which funded the study, said: “The performance benefits of using betaine as a feed additive in poultry diets are thought to be well known. However, understanding how this additive can be used to alleviate welfare concerns in laying hens through improved bone quality, without affecting egg quality or production, is an exciting development and extends benefits of betaine further.”

CANADA GREENLIGHTS NEW RESOURCES FOR FARMERS WHO WANT TO DISCOVER BIOGAS

Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food announced funding of up to $116,800 for the Canadian Biogas Association (CBA) to accelerate sustainable agricultural development.

The Minister also met with Jennifer Green, Executive Director of the Canadian Biogas Association, and Rob McKinlay of Harcolm Farms in Woodstock, Ontario, who installed a factory built mini digester system on his 72-head dairy farm. They discussed the benefits of biogas, how biogas installments work, and the educational resources available through the CBA's new website.

Biogas systems provide [farmers with] an innovative way to manage their waste, diversify their incomes and grow their businesses, all while reducing their GHG emissions.

MARIE-CLAUDE BIBEAU, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD

With funding of up to $28,800 from the Agricultural Clean Technology Program, the CBA launched a campaign to help farmers learn more about biogas. As part of the campaign, the CBA launched FarmingBiogas.ca, a new website with resources to help farmers evaluate the opportunities of biogas, including a self-assessment tool, answers to key questions, profiles of on-farm biogas plants in Canada and more. It also includes a checklist and links to biogas equipment suppliers and technical advisors, acting as a one-stop-shop to help farmers get started.

Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said, "Canadian agricultural producers ensure the health of our lands and continue to innovate to reduce the environmental impact of their practices. Biogas systems provide them an innovative way to manage their waste, diversify their incomes and grow their businesses, all while reducing their GHG emissions. With the tools offered by the Canadian Biogas Association, farmers will have access to relevant information to help them better understand the opportunities available to them in biogas and renewable natural gas."

On-farm biogas systems can help farmers cut greenhouse gas emissions, provide sustainable sources of energy and offer many other environmental advantages. They can also generate additional sources of income and create opportunities for the farm's next generation.

Biogas can be captured and purified to create renewable natural gas, which is fully interchangeable to replace conventional natural gas. The CBA also received $88,000 under the Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program to identify clusters of agricultural resources across Canada and assess the potential for renewable natural gas development by region. The CBA will use this information to create a guide to inform agricultural stakeholders about new and emerging renewable natural gas opportunities, encouraging collaborations to develop more sustainable energy systems in Canada.

Jennifer Green, Executive Director of the Canadian Biogas Association said, “there are already 61 farms and agri-food businesses across Canada successfully capturing biogas and turning it into a valuable clean energy resource. Studies show that there is the opportunity for much more. With the support of AAFC, we can accelerate further uptake of farm biogas projects and, in so doing, cut Canada's carbon emissions and support our agricultural communities.”

Canadian farmers are important partners in the fight against climate change. By adopting sustainable technologies and practices, farmers can reduce their environmental footprint and capture new economic opportunities.

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EMERGING DISEASE TRENDS COME UNDER FOCUS IN LATEST VERSION OF INDUSTRY 'BIBLE'

Health challenges associated with antibiotic-free production and the growing issue of wooden breast syndrome in broilers are two emerging trends to appear in the latest edition of Diseases of Poultry.

Referred to by the industry as “the bible of poultry diseases,” the 14th edition of the textbook has been updated to reflect evolving health and management challenges facing producers today.

David Swayne, DVM, PhD, editor in chief of the revised title, said the latest version would help veterinarians and other professionals understand emerging health issues, such as those associated with antibiotic-free production, more effectively.

“There has been a huge consumer demand to raise poultry antibiotic-free. And that creates a lot of difficulties in managing diseases and preventing diseases,” Swayne told Poultry Health Today.

“We approached a couple of world-renowned poultry veterinarians who deal with this issue in production, and they wrote an excellent chapter on antibiotic-free production of poultry.”

Diseases of Poultry was first published in the 1940s, and the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP) has overseen new editions since the early 1960s.

As the industry evolves, new health challenges and trends emerge, and the latest edition — which has been released in digital and print formats — reflects those changes, Swayne said.

“Wooden breast syndrome has become a major issue in broiler production,” he added. “That’s added in a chapter. White chick syndrome, which has just recently been determined to be caused by an astrovirus [has also been added].”

In addition to the new topics, existing health challenges have been revisited and updated with the latest thinking. “We went back and did major revisions for several chapters,” Swayne explained. Chicken anemia virus and reovirus are two examples of this.

Some diseases become less prevalent, as well. Mycoplasma meleagridis, for example, is “still out there” but not the significant issue it was 40 to 50 years ago; its entry has been incorporated into other parts of the book covering mycoplasma.

Compiling the book is a collaborative effort, added Swayne. “We have a little over 100 authors. I believe we have 71 that are US and I think 31 that are non-US authors.

“On the editorial staff, we have six editors, [and] we all made a concerted effort to try to find the best expertise in the world, not just the expertise we have here in the US.”

The books are available as a hard copy from Wiley or other online booksellers, while the digital edition is downloadable through the Bookshelf App. AAAP members get a 25% discount on both versions.

Watch video here: Emerging disease trends come under focus in latest version of industry bible - YouTube