YAP proposal #374: An Innovation Platform for Poultry Farmers (Jenson-David Dempsey Morfaw, Cameroon)

Hi, I am Jenson-David Dempsey Morfaw, 22-year-old Cameroonian based in the Northwest City of Bamenda. I am the Founder and CEO of Poult Vault Int. This is an innovation platform for poultry farmers, which brings together stakeholders in the sector to enhance the poultry value chain.

The platform provides farmers with free up-to-date poultry production techniques as well as veterinary checks, accounting/book keeping training, and follow-ups, as well as access to better quality materials such as feed, chicks, drinkers, brooders, feeders, etc.

The platform aims at ensuring the highest quality chickens whilst reducing cost for farmers and consumers, which is why we partner with local research institutions to find ways and means to achieve these objectives. Furthermore, we assist farmers to process, market and distribute their products through the Poult Vault brand, taking a small commission for our sales services.

Poult Vault sees itself as a social enterprise and tries to maximize the impact it has on the community.

Poult Vault has barter system in place in which it assists children in rural communities get access to education and health care.

We assist parents pay for their children’s school fees, schooling materials and health insurance using crops such as maize, groundnuts, soya beans, and millet. These staple grains are used by our partner chicken farmers to feed the chickens.

Farmers do not have money but they have resources, which could give their children their basic necessities. Also, the platform helps farmers produce and market organic manure made from chicken waste which helps enhance the soil fertility and increase crop yields for farmers.

The Poult Vault Platform also trains farmers in biogas production and installation which is made from chicken waste. This renewable energy is relatively cheaper and reduces the cutting down of trees which are the main energy sources.

The barter system has assisted close to 1,000 children get access to education and health care.

The platform is very sustainable. Most of the services are free but the sales services cover for all the costs. The project is more sustainable and profitable with scale. The more farmers we work with and the more chickens farmers raise, the project becomes better due to economies of scale.

In Cameroon and most parts of Africa, there is a high level of malnutrition, especially in children, caused by poor eating habits and poverty. Chicken which is a good protein source is expensive in Cameroon and seen as a luxury to the common person due to its scarcity and price. This poverty negatively affects employment, education and health.

Chickens and the poultry sector have the potential of solving multi-dimensional problems from hunger to employment, education, health, combating climate change, and enhancing soils. This project does not only help the community as a whole but also is profitable for me as it is a business which makes money and is able to scale rapidly.

The project has worked with over 100 poultry farmers since 2011, has helped put 1,000 children in school, and given chicken loans to over 300 youth and women in the community who sell to make a living.

Presently, the project supplies 1.5 tonnes of natural affordable chickens to market per week. This has been done with the help of local and international partners such as the Anzisha prize, MWF, IRAD and USADF.

We plan on expanding the project by training more farmers, doing the follow ups on their farms and giving more extension services. This will ensure more children going to school, more chickens supplied to market and more chickens given as loans to people.

We measure our success on the number of farmers impacted, the number of children sent to school and the amount of chickens sold to the markets. Also we measure our financial success on our increase in operating incomes, returns on investment and revenues.

With a USD 5,000 grant, we will expand our project. We will be able to expand to 25 new farmers. This entails on-farm training of the farmers, accounting, and training follow-up and sales.

Also we will implement an SMS service to farmers sending tips, industry information, and feedstuff prices to help farmers reduce costs and increase yields.

We will also enhance the Poult Vault packed chicken parts. This will enable consumers able to buy chickens in retail for as low as USD 0.5 to ensure affordability and convenience. The grant will also enable 100 more children get access to school and increase supply of chickens to two tonnes of chickens per week.

These activities will be carried out during a one year period and the activities will be sustainable which will extend past a one year time frame.

Blogpost and picture submitted by Jenson-David Dempsey Morfaw (Cameroon): dempseymorfaw[at]yahoo.com

The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.

 

This post is published as proposal #374 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

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