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Women poultry farmers key to Oman's food security: Ministry

Oman Sunday 23/September/2018 14:13 PM
By: Times News Service
Women poultry farmers key to Oman's food security: Ministry

Muscat: Oman's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has announced that 50 female poultry farmers in North Batinah will soon have access to training in order to turn them into small business owners, that will in turn contribute to Oman's food security.
According to the ministry, the Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock in Batinah has teamed up with the company Majis to train these women using an initiative.
"The initiative aims to boost poultry-producing families in general and rural woman specifically. Fifty women who manage home-based poultry businesses in Liwa and Shinas will be chosen to be reinforced with a comprehensive scientific programme that includes a number of training courses, as well as field visits. These should help the women become SME owners in their field and turn them into forces able to help in securing foodstuff self-sufficiency for the Omani community," a statement by the ministry said.
An official within the directorate said, "Currently, there are many businesses that play a part in supplying Batinah with poultry. There are small poultry businesses scattered all over the governorate."
Data from the directorate shows there are over 579 open broiler systems, 309 closed systems, and over 4,602 holdings for domestic chickens in Northern al Battinah alone. There is one holding for parent hens, which houses over 40,000 hens.
"We could say that Batinah is the Omani heavyweight of livestock," the official added.
According to the ministry, candidates for the SME training programme will be chosen based on standards that the directorate chooses. But on top of the 50 women, other segments of the population will have access to a general awareness-raising programme, which should positively impact the community as a whole.