02 Jun 2014

The Chinese saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step applies appropriately to Mr Fastudo Armando.

At 15, Mr Armando owned pigeons at his parents homestead in Francistown. Now, he has graduated to keeping ostriches at his 16-hectare farm at Ditladi in the North East District.

“The passion for keeping birds made me to venture into farming, and so far I am one of the most well-known farmers in Botswana,” said the now 38-year-old Mr Armando, rejoicing at the flock of different kinds of birds roaming his farm.

Mr Armando said from pigeons, he moved on to keeping broiler chicken in 1997, and because it was a profitable undertaking, he then ventured into farming different birds such as guinea fowls.

The budding farmer has now added ostriches and rabbits to his collection and practices integrated farming by breeding cows, goats, pigs, dogs and ploughs maize and lab lab to feed his livestock.

At his homestead, he keeps Chinese and Egyptian geese, ducks, turkeys, hansa as well as astralop and orpinton chicken.

Mr Armando has attended courses ranging from piggery, poultry keeping and business management to gain more knowledge on how to operate and manage the farm.

He applauded veterinary officers working in his region, saying they are always there to provide assistance whenever there are disease outbreaks.

As a mentor to some primary, junior and secondary school students who visit his farm to learn about varieties of birds, Mr Armando has urged them to engage in farming because it can earn them a living.

He, however, decried youth projects that fail due to mismanagement by owners who leave their farms to employees and go to stay in towns.

Furthermore, he said although farming is a profitable venture, just like any other job, it requires a dedicated and hard-working individual who is passionate about what he does.

Mr Armando criticised workers who do not take their work seriously, stating that without supervision most workers are reluctant to work although they expect to get paid.

He said his main challenge is shortage of water, especially that he is eager to venture into fruit and vegetable production.

Meanwhile, Mr Armando supplies individuals in the North East District with chicken and other birds’ meat.

He also supplies live chickens, bucks, rams and puppies to other breeders and those who are assisted by the government through the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) programme to start small stock farming. Ends