Women Poultry Farmers Learn How to Improve Their Businesses

From 22nd to 25th November, 2011 in Bamako, Mali, the women entrepreneurs learned management skills in best practices in sanitary poultry farm management as a follow-up to a July 2011 training in Dakar, Senegal .  An assessment of that workshop revealed the women could benefit from additional training in financial management skills, in order to cut their costs and increase their profits. 
 

The Bamako workshop consisted of teaching and field application of management skills, with topics covering all aspects of poultry farm management including management of sanitary conditions, human resources, product marketing, poultry feed, stock, and supply chain.    

Participants were taught how to integrate modern practices that conform to international standards in the management of their enterprises in order to be more competitive.  

According to Dr. Yaya Dolo, the consultant who facilitated the training, at the end of the session the women would be better organized and better equipped to manage their farms.  

Direct field experience was provided during a visit to a poultry farm in Tabakoro, near Bamako, owned by training participant, Madam Diakite Cama Coulibaly.
 

 “I have never had any training since I started this business in 2007,” Mme. Coulibaly stated. “There is a great difference between how I was managing my farm and what I have learned now about poultry farm management, especially in the area of record-keeping. The training has helped me discover better ways of managing my farm, and I believe I will make more profit after this workshop.”
 

Madame Kora Thérèse from Benin, proprietress of Ferme Avicole Terre Promise, had a similar reaction. “Since the year 2000, this is the first time I have attended such external training. I now know what I need to do to improve my business,” she said.  “I can now see clearly, and this light will take me far.”
 

And Madame Sanogo Karidia, owner of La Ferme de Bingerville in Côte d’Ivoire, was eager to use what she had learned. 
 

“My productivity will increase because I have learned a lot here,” she said. “I am in a hurry to go back and apply it!”