By Domenic Wasescha | BASAID Project Leader
When visiting with our local partner CFI some chicken farmers in Battambang, everyting appeared to be on track. The hens were laying eggs, small chickens were hatching and running around the place, supervised by an alert mother hen.
The situation in Battambang has changed dramatically over the last 3 months. An agressive avian flu hit the chicken farmers, family by family. The outbreak was very violent, even locals died of infections as we learned even in the news here. For our team, this was a hard blow. We had planned for vacinations of all hens and new hatched chickens. When visiting we got cofirmation that all chickens have been vacinated according vetenary recommendation. It is very difficult to understand what has happend and to identify the root causes for this heavy blow.
We certainly want to continue support income generation for the local families We are currently discussing what is the best way forward. Should we just restart an restock the farmers? This is not to difficult, as the key infrastructure (pens) is still available. But there is a considerable risk, that the avian flu hits again. Other options under discussion are : Selling eggs or growing mushrooms.
I'm very sad that the project didn't achieve the target. For us, this is just a small financial loss. But for the local chicken farmers, having nothing to sell after 6 months work and investments in feeding the flock, this is a really hard blow.
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