How to Start a Poultry Business in Nigeria

Poultry farms are unarguably a great source of income and a fertile ground for an investment, but lack of proper management could ruin a long period of toiling. I will be discussing here, how to start your own poultry business in five simple steps.

However, be guided, reading just one article may not contain all you need to know about starting a poultry farm. Read more, read wider, reach out to people that have already done it first-hand and has been in the business for a long time and you will get a lot of tips on how to make yours as profitable.

1. Decide on an area of interest – People generally think of poultry farms as a place for just birds, chicken and all that. While it is very possible to be in different areas of interest or niches, it’s advisable to narrow down and focus your energy on a particular area. There are other aspects like layers breeding, hatchery, poultry feed, broilers breeding and a whole lot more.

2. Business plan – This is important as it outlines your vision for the business, goals, and profitability of your business. You realize that your major aim of going into business is making profits, so it has to be well planned, well researched. It should contain the expenses needed to satisfy needs like location, housing, feeding, facilities, and so on. Then how you intend marketing your products.

A business plan is also important if you don’t have startup capital, as you could source for capital based on the plans you already have on ground for profiting from your farm.

3. Location – You need a location for your poultry farm; especially your chickens, eggs etc. Location is really important as it has to be well thought and planned. The size of land needed for your farm depends on the number of birds you plan on raising. Choose areas that are pollution free and places where you’d get easy access to water. Also, keep in mind that you don’t want to choose environments where you’d be endangering your animals by making them an easy target to predators around.

4. Capital – Just as other businesses demand, starting a poultry would require some capital. It ranges from about N100,000 – N10,000,000 to get your business up and running. But the minimum should be N100,000 and nothing less. As you don’t want way less than standard and profiting too little in the process.

5. Facilities – You’ll have to plan facilities like poultry housing, cages, deep litter for birds, egg trays, incubators, drinkers, feeders, lighting, nests, crates and so on. Which all depends on your startup capital. Make more researches into what you think your current budget can take care of, and cut down if necessary.

Here are five simple steps on how to start your own poultry farm here in Nigeria. The exciting truth about poultry business in Nigeria is that there are a lot of consumers of poultry farm produces already. Nigeria already has a market for dairy products, that we even import from other countries to supplement  the insufficiency of the locally produced dairy products. That’s another reason you want to start your farm business, especially here in Nigeria.