The local Ugandan chicken is a delicacy for almost every citizen. However, rearing one from a chick into a ready cock or hen for either beef or laying eggs takes more than a year, a factor which beats the breed when it comes to business.
For that matter, businessmen opted for imported breeds from India and Netherlands known as Kroilers, which serves some of the characteristics of the local chicken yet they grow faster, lay big eggs and the laying takes quite a long period. But to a larger extent, the Kroilers are not exactly meeting the standards of the local chicken.
However, in the latest development, the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO) has already come up with the new version of the local chicken which will be able to take less time to grow, lay more eggs of relatively good size and for a longer period.
This was on Wednesday revealed by the researchers as the government through NARO launched a local chicken breeding and a production unit in Mukono District.
Dr. Barbara Zawedde, the head of Mukono Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MUZARDI) said the local chicken breading and production unit is intended to boost the research project which is aimed at improving the local chicken into better breeds with faster growth and increased egg production rate.
The local chicken breeding and a production unit was launched by the State Minister for Agriculture, Robert Bwino Kyakulaga at MUZARDI in Ntaawo Cell in Mukono Central Division, Mukono Municipality.
Dr. Zawedde said the civil works which cost sh694m, have been funded by Uganda Government and European Union under the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU). The project includes the remodelling and equipment of the local chicken hatchery research and production unit.
“The operationalized unit is intended to support the national local chicken seed systems. The main works involved the remodelling of the units into a poultry breeder and seed holding units (biosecurity and reception unit, hatchery unit, research/production units, bio waste incinerator) to produce fertile eggs and day-old chicks to be supplied to selected hatcheries with fertile eggs and farmers with day-old chicks,” she said.
One of the researchers taking a lead in this project, Abas Kigozi said that they collected a variety of local chicken from all-over the country including Northern Uganda, which is one the leading regions in local chicken rearing and they are currently making the improvement of those local breeds into a better local breed.
Kigozi said that unlike the local breeds which have been taking more than a year to grow and start laying eggs, the one which they are coming up with is so much better.
“In a period of four-five months, they are weighing at least two and a half kilograms and between five-six months, they start laying the eggs,” he made the assurance.
He however said that they are maintaining the local genes because what they are coming up with is not a hybrid. Therefore, he added that the end product from this research will be tasting the same as the local chicken, not like the hybrid.
Kigozi said that this kind of research undergoes five different stages and so far, they have completed the first three stages, remaining with only two.
Mukono Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Mike Ssegawa said this research is so good and timely because most people in villages are familiar with keeping local chicken which is easy to feed, treat and keep.
“With the current Parish Development Model (PDM), people will be able to invest into this kind of venture which will enable them to rear these local chickens with a lot of ease.
The Director General of NARO, Dr. Yona Baguma told the Minister that through different Research institutions located in different parts of the country, NARO carries out a lot of innovations which if embraced by the local people, the country will be able to move a lot of miles ahead.
“We are however dismayed that the district agriculture and production officers do not bother to find out the latest research in different fields with us so that they can help the people in their respective districts to enrol on the latest developments,” he said.
He asked the Minister to make sure that at every beginning of planting seasons, they host those officers in their different regions and take them through the latest innovations which would be on market that particular season.
The MUZARDI supervisory committee chairperson, Rebecca Bukenya Ssaabaganzi was also dismayed to the fact that the facility’s stay in Mukono is being threatened by Uganda Christian University (UCU) which claims the lease for government got expired and therefore want MUZARDI to vacate.
“This is a very big institution with trillions of money invested in different research projects including the ones which were concluded and others which are on-going. You cannot have this kind of research work and infrastructure shifted,” she noted.
She asked the government to bring UCU and Church of Uganda as its mother institution on board so that the UCU as an institution would start working together with MUZARDI through a partnership or for the government to have the university compensated.
“This facility is benefitting millions of Ugandans not only from the Central Region but also from other regions. Students ranging from primary schools, secondary and universities use this place as a study field, we cannot think of losing it in any way or the other,” she added.
MUZARDI is currently occupying over 100 acres of land at Ntaawo, however, with the infrastructure developments going on around the facility, it is threatening the hub of research and innovation which is for decades have been benefitting not on the districts from Buganda region but the whole Uganda at large.
Bwino also appreciated the innovation pioneered by NARO at MUZARDI to have the local chicken improved into a better breed intended to increase their production output.
“At the end of this research, we are to ensure that the improved local chicken breed is distributed to farmers in different parts of the country. We may not distribute actual chicks but also fertilised eggs can work better,” he said.
The Minister also expressed dismay saying that land in almost every NARO’s different centers is faced with encroachers and people who vandalise their property.
He however instructed Dr. Baguma to work with Police and its sister agencies to ensure that they provide security to government property under NARO.