Innocent Mapaike
Peter Chawapiwa
CHIVI – As the economic situation in the country remains fragile, some youths in the district have gone into poultry production as a means of beating extreme poverty.
One of the enterprising youths, Innocent Fusirayi Mapaike, of Muzvidziwa village under headman Madyangove, said poultry farming was providing them with income for his family.
"A number of young people have taken up poultry production as a means of providing for their families. This has become a viable enterprise for most of us and we can now afford to pay fees for our children.
"However, we are still faced with challenges of getting lucrative markets. The market is limited but we believe that if we come together and expand our operations, we will realise better fruits from our endeavours," Mapaike said.
Mapaike appealed for assistance in both cash and kind from individuals and non-governmental organisations to enable them to form a loose co-operative for the purposes of marketing their products.
"At the moment everybody looks forward to selling at Chivi growth point. Selling to individual is not a good deal because most of such customers take time to pay or they don’t pay at all.
"If we can come together and supply supermarket chains across the country, we will be able to realise our dream of starting efficient and large scale production units," said Mapaike.
He said he will continue to forge ahead until his business becomes more profitable.
"The sky is the limit for us. Even Irvine’s started off small but look where they are now,” Mapaike said.
He however lamented the shortage of day-old-chicks on the market, blaming suppliers for creating shortages so as to perpetuate price increases.business
