Francisca Quaye is the Managing Director and founder of Rosons Foods, a registered farm for poultry and animal feed production in Ghana. Quaye originally trained as a Health Administrator but decided to make a switch to become a poultry farmer.
Quaye said there was no specific inspiration behind her decision to become a poultry farmer. According to her, she happened to know a few of her friends who are big players in the agriculture sector and upon discussions, she realized that going into poultry farming would be beneficial.
For her, going into poultry farming was an opportunity that came her way and she gave it her all to make it work. Coming from a background with no knowledge in poultry farming, Quaye said she has come to love the job, and caring for poultry and livestock.
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Today, her poultry business is one of the biggest in Ghana. She first started with 11,000 birds and currently, the farm has about 50, 000 egg-laying birds, specifically layers. Also, the farm currently produces about 1,000 crates of eggs a day.
“Apart from that, we have well-trained staff who are well equipped to take care of the large number of birds the farm has,” she told Agri Gold Magazine. “Rosons Foods also makes our feed to monitor what the birds are taking in. You cannot be too sure about the composition of the feed on the market. We are a modern farm that serves the urban community with fresh poultry produce.”
Her farm, located at Bonkua, Suhum Coltar Road, Asuboi in the Eastern Region of Ghana, has an agrotourism concept that allows visitors, especially families, to have fun and learn about rabbits, catfish, and goats to broaden their perspective on animal farming, she told Agri Gold Magazine.
According to Quaye, making a switch from health administration to poultry farming was not easy. She noted that she had to be focused and determined in order to achieve success on the farm.
“You need to gather strength and knowledge, and also learn on the job. You must keep challenging yourself each day to be able to advance in the business and also enlighten yourself with animal rearing in any form,” she said.
Her success on the farm has not been all rosy. Quaye recalled visiting the farm one day only to see her beds dying. According to Quaye, she had about 11,000 birds prior to the incident, and afterward, she had only 4,000 birds left.
“Imagine raising chicks to the age of 12 weeks, expecting them to produce eggs for sales. Only to visit the farm and find them dying. The worst is not knowing what went wrong and having only a few birds left,” she said.
Despite the sad episode, Quaye said she did not feel like giving up. She felt disappointed she was not able to detect the incident before the birds died. Since then, Quaye has engaged a specialist to prevent the incident from happening again.
“Ever since the professional came to the farm and is always supervising it, we have not had that challenge. However, I will advise you to do some research before you start the business. In my case, I had to go through this painful experience to know the right measures to take,” she noted.
For people who want to venture into the poultry business, Quaye said there is a need to seek guidance from players in the industry. For her, the sector could be profitable depending on how one manages it.
