Craig Chibanda, Ph.D

The Young Scientists Group is having it's first physical meeting at @FAO today....Later I will present on why it is important to increase research on marginalised groups.

Wir stärken die 🇩🇪-🇳🇿 Partnerschaft im Agrar-#Klimaschutz. Heute startet unser gemeinsames Projekt Agri-DENZ zur Vernetzung von Forschung, Politik und Drittländern. Mehr ➡️ bmel.de/goto?id=116922

🔊 Exciting times in Barcelona as the #aWISH project kicks off its 3rd annual meeting! We covered key data insights, challenges, and pilot updates. 💡 Stay tuned for more progress! 👀 Learn more: buff.ly/3MbTIf6 #Innovation #Sustainability #aWISH #Barcelona

Happy to finally see this published, together with @BettinaRudloff and colleagues from across the globe. A lot talked about the "new" geostrategic dimension of food, but ag and food policy was most often of high national and strategic importance. Recent events amplified this.

📌 From 16 to 19 September 2024, #aWISH partners conducted data collection at pig finisher farms, a transporter, and a slaughterhouse in Spain. 👉 The individuals involved in the data collection, include Josep Reixach, Petra Thobe, Craig Chibanda, and Angela Ramon.

@SaraDusel @ubcAWP Nice, all the best.

@jahman_adamski Farm competitiveness = 1. farm performance (FCR, mortality rates, labour productivity) + 2. production costs....this means farms that are competitive have a good balance of 1. farm performance and 2. production costs. I explain this in detail in my paper: emerald.com/insight/conten…

@craigchibanda Please stop calling them coops that's for the backyard. I don't think you understand poultry.... you are actually contradicting yourself. What exactly are they balancing?

United states is 20 years behind the UK when it comes to poultry farming. One thing that really bothers me is the lack of poultry farming innovation in Zimbabwe. There are no real high-tech poultry houses in the country. The ones I see are very American and years behind. Zimbabwe has one of the best climates for growing chicken in both winter & summer yet nobody is really giving it a real go. You have people investing in Mining, Blueberries, Wheat, Tobacco & Maize. I mean people with real money can't invest in poultry. Why? I don't get it! Why is the poultry industry not taken seriously by investors or rich people who decide they want to go into farming? Its always center pivots, irrigation & tractors. You are at a far greater risk doing arable farming. Poultry is controlled & less likley to have problems with that investment. Plus the turnaround is way quicker than any crop planted. With Large-Scale, High-Tech poultry houses you can push birds out at 1.8 to 2kg @ 31days. You could have a 270k bird site with 1 worker! Regarding labour its hassle free. Anaerobic digestion to power up the place you shouldn't have electricity problems. Biomass for heating so no need for a drop of gas. Theft won't be possible & all you have to do is grow good chicken. Yet we still see these open side sheds. Doing it the way we see most poultry houses is Zimbabwe would loose you two whole cycles per year of chicken growing. That is some serious loot if the farmer has a considerable amount of chickens. Why dont we see any kind of innovation in Zimbabwe's poultry industry? I am guessing nobody is getting the real advice needed!

@jahman_adamski I am saying farms in Brazil and USA have no reason to invest in high tech barns/coops because it makes no financial sense for them. As a poultry Economist I work daily on EU farms and understand very well the benefits of closed-systems.

@jahman_adamski You are right in terms of performance, but performance is just one part of "competiveness". Farms that are able to balance performance and production costs are more economically sustainable. That is why it makes no sense for these farms to invest in high-tech coops.

@jahman_adamski The chart below shows the biggest exporters of chicken meat. The issues I raised explain why Brazil and the US are FAR ahead of other countries in terms of chicken meat exports. Most countries simply can't compete with them in terms of costs of production.

@jahman_adamski EU farms have are slightly better in terms of feed-use efficiency measured through FCR but that advantage is just marginal. Even if you compare the mortality rates of typical farms in Brazil and USA they are not high despite the poor biosecurity measures you outline.

@jahman_adamski Therefore, before we even consider huge investments in the latest coop, we need to push for more production in soya and maize. Due to our climatic conditions, investments in "climate controlled" coops is not a priority. We can become very competitive if we get the feed right

@jahman_adamski When we compare poultry farm economics (production costs, feed conversion ratios, etc) you will find that mainly 3 issues are important: 1. Availability of low cost and high quality feed, 2. High quality chicks, 3. Husbandry. Before investing in coops, we need to get this right.

@jahman_adamski In fact, farms in Brazil and US which mostly don't have closed coops outperform European farms in terms of costs of production because they have access to affordable feed. Based on my research, the competitive advantage is associated with minimising the feed costs.

@TeamFuloZim @MVerwijk @AristildeCanada @vonKirchmannEU @PeteVowles @AusEmbZim @cmendesg5 @muradbaseer @berna_kasnakli Frame 2

#AmbassadorsCookoffChallenge #HighfiridziChallenge GROUP TWO OF TWO. THANK YOU AMBASSADORS FOR TAKING PART IN THIS CHALLENGE. WE MADE MEMORIES THAT WILL LAST FOREVER. @MVerwijk @AristildeCanada @vonKirchmannEU @PeteVowles @AusEmbZim @cmendesg5 @muradbaseer @berna_kasnakli Thank you. Over to you the @TeamFuloZim Family vote!Only one vote per person. Do Not vote for multiple frames.

@TeamFuloZim Frame 3

#AmbassadorsCookoffChallenge #HighfiridziChallenge GROUP ONE OF TWO. *Frame 2 The contender cooked two different starches. Rice ne dovi/idobi and zviyo sadza. ONLY ONE VOTE PER PERSON. START WITH FRAME NO. THEN YOUR COMMENT IF ANY. THE POLL WILL RUN FOR 24 Hours to give as many people as possible the chance to cast their votes. The top two in Group One will go head-to-head with the top two in Group Two. GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE AMBASSADORS WHO TOOK TIME OFF TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS #GastronomyDiplomacy. @MVerwijk 🇳🇱 @cmendesg5 -@WFP_Zimbabwe @PeteVowles 🇬🇧 @vonKirchmannEU 🇪🇺 @AristildeCanada🇨🇦 @berna_kasnakli 🇹🇷 @AusEmbZim 🇦🇺 @muradbaseer 🇵🇰 Members of the @TeamFuloZim Admin are NOT eligible to vote! @Lialarsen @Vie_matongo @mutcol @KingJayZim

🎉 The wait is over, join us for the launch of #aWISH, #HEurope's 2nd Annual Meeting video! 🌟 Celebrate a year of groundbreaking progress in animal welfare monitoring, featuring tech advancements and project milestones. 📽️ Click on the link to watch it: buff.ly/4bqhX3G

@drDendere That sounds like a good idea but we will have to compete with the tonnes of milk powder that is exported from the EU. The milk powder is often used to make a lot of the dairy products in Ghana and there have been a lot of debates abt fat filled milk powder exports to West Africa.

Now I am think we need a partnership between Ghana 🇬🇭 and Zimbabwe 🇿🇼. We have milk and sugar. They have cocoa 😜how about we make some Ghanaian-Zimbabwean chocolate. I believe Freddo is a Zim made chocolate and everyone’s fav.

Random thread on fresh milk In my politics of chocolate course we’ve learned that one of the reasons Ghana doesn’t make a lot of chocolate is because they don’t have a lot of fresh milk. My students & I found this hard to believe until @Wellesley Econ Prof Baafra confirmed

@drDendere @naunihalpublic I conducted a lot of research on dairy production in Ghana. Another issue is the type of breeds that are reared in Ghana. Due to the harsh climatic conditions, high milk producing breeds are not well adapted to the high temperatures. Availability of feed is also a big problem.

Unlike in Zimbabwe were dairy farming is huge, I learned today that there are certain parasites in Ghana (except Sahel) (thank you @naunihalpublic) that kill dairy cattle. As a kid my husband would drink straight from the cow’s nipples 🤮 as did many more normal kids 😂😂😂

@jahman_adamski Good questions. I am a Poultry Economist and will be happy to give advice to anyone on the issues stated above, or you can check out my publications on broiler production in Ghana, Senegal, and Germany.

I met a gentleman the other day who told me that he was building poultry houses in his rural area. He showed me pictures. There were 3 of them 120m x 10m. Really nice looking, too. He didn't know I was a poultry consultant @ the time. All he could talk about was going home & farming chicken. I started to ask him qweshens..... he had very few answers. What genetic will you grow? What is your stocking density? What FCR are you looking for? What age will you slaughter? How many hours dark daily? What is your water source? How will you treat your water? Where will you sell them? He couldn't answer any of those questions fluently. Yet he had all the answers on how he was moving back home. His poultry houses can accommodate 20k birds each yet he was talking about 15k. I felt so sorry for his wife & kids. If you don't know much about what you getting into.... seek advice & yes it costs money!