Regional West African poultry project : an assessment, April-May 1980

Special evaluation covers the period 1971-5/80 and is based on document review and site visits by an outside reviewer. The Government of Mali"s (GOM) Centre Avicole Sotuba (CAS) is an unsound operation -- disease and morbidity losses are high (64%); egg production is low (18% or 66 eggs per bird per year); financial records are inadequate; facilities are overstaffed; products are sold below cost; and despite substantial GOM subsidies, the operation is losing large sums of money. Given this sad state of affairs, the evaluator recommends that the GOM sell the CAS to a private foreign or domestic investor for a sum based on CAS"s future profitability or A.I.D."s past contribution. Less preferred remedies include arranging a lease/purchase agreement or lease/rent agreement with a private investor, turning the CAS into a commercial egg production operation while continuing to produce feed, training the poultry and business management staff to upgrade the present operation, or closing down the CAS. If the GOM decides to retain ownership, the evaluator recommends that the CAS: (1) locate or train a poultry pathology staff; (2) improve the quality and nutritional value of feed, especially for parent stock and chicks; (3) buy spare parts for the disabled (three of five) incubators and a generator to power all the incubators; (4) debeak day-old chicks and segregate chicks by age to reduce morbidity and mortality; (5) increase the number and cleanliness of waterers to lessen health hazards; (6) have the Central Veterinary Laboratory conduct autopsies bimonthly in order to devise a disease and parasite control program; (7) import fewer parent stock; (8) reduce staff from 97 to 43 and locate a business-minded director and a deputy director with poultry management experience; (9) set up a thorough cost-accounting system; (10) produce high-quality, appealing eggs for public sale; (11) charge farmers for all services performed; and (12) require regional centers to buy chicks and feed wholesale and sell their products for a profit. Finally, it is recommended that the GOM deny the CAS"s request for an additional 800,000,000 MF investment.