Samuel Sawadogo is a poultry farmer. Passionate about farming, he bought a farm as soon as he had the means. His plan was to start egg production with 3,000 layers, but he ended up losing around 15 million FCFA.
From this experience, he advises others to start small and understand the processes and techniques before making a significant investment.
"My main advice is to start small. But if you've already invested all your savings and funds to start at a high level, and if there's a failure, you may not recover from it," he shared.
From this experience, he advises others to start small and understand the processes and techniques before making a significant investment.
"My main advice is to start small. But if you've already invested all your savings and funds to start at a high level, and if there's a failure, you may not recover from it," he shared.
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00:00 This project, with 3,000 plumbers,
00:04 was supposed to create a margin of about 20 million.
00:10 But in the end, I think it's a loss of about 15 million.
00:16 I'd say I was born in Brussels.
00:23 Because my parents were in Côte d'Ivoire,
00:25 there was a plantation where I spent my entire childhood.
00:31 I kept a sense of nostalgia for that environment.
00:34 As soon as I could afford to have a farm,
00:38 I wanted to recreate that environment.
00:41 This is a plumber's farm that we've set up here.
00:46 The building we're in here,
00:49 if I take the building itself and the different cages,
00:53 cost about 20 million.
00:55 But in addition to that, you know that the main constraint
00:58 for the plumbers in our area is temperature.
01:03 So we had to invest in humidifiers.
01:09 If I take the humidifiers and the electrical installation,
01:13 we're still at about 5 million for that investment.
01:16 We bought 3,400 plumbers.
01:24 The estimate was that we could have a 10% loss
01:30 and that we would have about 3,000 plumbers at the time of the pump.
01:34 Unfortunately, at this stage,
01:36 I think we've lost half of the hens we bought.
01:40 Since the beginning of the pump,
01:42 we haven't been able to reach a pump rate of more than 60%.
01:45 I'd say we haven't been able to repay the price of buying plumbers.
01:52 And we haven't been able to repay their food
01:56 in the first six months,
01:58 given the pump's weakness.
02:00 In terms of food formula,
02:10 we've changed the formula several times
02:14 without really seeing any improvement.
02:18 But we don't give up. We don't give up.
02:21 We know that there's learning in the agricultural sector.
02:24 I think we're in a learning phase,
02:27 even if this phase is quite painful,
02:30 given the importance of losses.
02:32 We're not going to lose anything.
02:35 We're going to keep on working.
02:38 We're not going to give up.
02:40 I think training is really fundamental
02:48 for a promoter in an activity.
02:51 It allows them to control their risks.
02:53 Initially, I said to myself,
02:55 "I'm a farmer's son.
02:58 "I know the plants, I know the trees,
03:01 "I know the hens. I was raised with them when I was little."
03:05 But the agricultural project goes beyond
03:10 what we learned informally when we were little.
03:14 Because managing these hens,
03:15 managing local hens that are in the henhouse,
03:19 are two completely different jobs.
03:21 Some say advice doesn't advise,
03:30 that it's the consequences that do.
03:32 Initially, several people told me to start small.
03:36 But I had so much ambition on this farm
03:40 that I thought I'd start at 3,000
03:44 and that I'd be able to get the skills I needed
03:48 to not fail.
03:50 Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
03:52 So my main advice is to start small.
03:57 But if you've already put all your savings and funds
04:01 to start at a high level,
04:03 if there's a failure, you risk not getting promoted.
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