01 Aug 2018

Keeping guinea fowls is proving to be a challenge for some Mmanoko/Gamodubu Poverty Eradication beneficiaries.

This came to light in an interview with some beneficiaries recently.

One beneficiary, Ms Alice Tshiamonyane said she started with 20 guinea fowls in 2016.

Ms Tshiamonyane explained that keeping guinea fowls was a challenge as they eat more compared to chickens, adding that she has resorted to working for Ipelegeng to be able to feed the guinea fowls. She revealed that failure to feed them properly resulted in them killing and eating the younger ones.

Furthermore, she said although she has been in business for close to two years, she has never sold any guinea fowls.

 Ms Tshiamonyane said it posed a challenge, especially if one did not have a permanent source of income like her.

She said the market has also not been favourable as customers found it exorbitant to purchase an egg for P3.50 or meat for P250.

She said another challenge was that the eggs could not be kept for more than a week as they had a short shelf life.

She said her woes were further compounded by last year’s storms and rains that destroyed her guinea fowls’ structure and drowned some.

Ms Tshiamonyane said her saving grace was that guinea fowls were not prone to diseases.

Meanwhile, another beneficiary, Ms Lenah Mpata explained that her major challenge was that the fowls could only be sold after slaughter as one needed to apply for a permit from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks to buy a live one. ***

Another problem, she said was that guinea fowls only laid eggs once in a year.

She revealed that out of the 20 fowls she was given she ended up with over 100 chicks.

Ms Mpata said last year she sold all the eggs as she could not afford the additional keets.

She said she has also managed to sell 20 fowls to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, pocketing P4 000.

She also said feeding them was less expensive as she ploughed maize and sunflower to feed the guinea fowls.

Meanwhile the project implementer, Mr Kgosietsile Tau from the wildlife department said they had realised that the project was not doing well despite their efforts to help ease the responsibilities.

He said they had made an arrangement for the eggs to be delivered to Molepolole within a few days, adding however, that they observed that the hatching rate was low for some beneficiaries.

He said the keets were dying in the process of fending for themselves as guinea fowls did not protect their young like chickens.

The wildlife officer also said guinea fowls only laid eggs once in a year from August to January.

“One guinea fowl can produce up to 60 eggs in that period. However, the hatching rate is a challenge as only 60 per cent of the eggs are hatched, and the mortality rate also reduces the number of keets,” he said.

Mr Tau said it was on that note that the committee, together with the Office of the President, resolved to stop enrolling new people under the guinea fowls project with those awaiting assistance being advised to change projects.

He said Ms Tshiamonyane’s project had a challenge with the location of the shelter until the land board came to her rescue.

“The specifications are that the guinea fowls should be kept in a 5 by 10m structure, however, we want beneficiaries to increase it since it is for business and the carrying capacity has to withstand that, so Ms Tshiamonyane had no land for that,” he said.

He also said Ms Tshiamonyane’s structure would be mended this financial year as it was destroyed by natural disaster.

In addition, Mr Tau said guinea fowls shelter has to be spacious as they were kept full-time.

Moreover, he said his department was supposed to assist beneficiaries in marketing their projects, adding that initially the strategy was that new beneficiaries would buy stock from existing projects, but that it has not helped much.

He said the other issue was that it was expensive to maintain a guinea fowl, hence it was advisable to sell them from P150 upwards, which he attributed to the fact unlike chickens, which could be free range, guinea fowls were confined and could not go out to look for food.

Mr Tau also explained that giunea fowls had to be sold slaughtered to avoid contamination of genes as the guinea fowls given to beneficiaries were not indigenous.

He said he had also observed that guinea fowls laid more eggs in 2016 because government was supplying feed, revealing that out of 20 fowls they managed to hatch over 200 keets.

He said the following year was disastrous as beneficiaries struggled with feeding, hence in the 2017 laying season, out of 11 projects, only six were able to produce eggs. ENDS