He sat on a bench under a sprawling mango tree in his farm, leaning his aching back on the trunk. He hit himself with his right palm in a desperate attempt to snuff lives out of mosquitoes that would not stop perching on him. Agbaosi Sonayon had been at the poultry section of his farm all day, daring the scorching sun while applying different methods to save his dying chickens. Already, 57 out of 400 species in the battery had died and more than 80 were not in a good condition.
The scenario was not completely strange to the 31-year-old farmer. Thirty-four of his chickens had died during the raining season in 2017 when he commenced the poultry. He acquired some farming skills informally from his late father which he banked on to set up the dwindling business at Mowo, a serene community in the Badagry area of Lagos.
“As much as I tried to manage the sorry situation, things were getting worse. I had to secure the service of an expert to save the rest of the chickens from dying in 2017. Maybe that is what I would do again if there is no improvement,” the father of two grumbled, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“I am planning to take a break for some months to have sound training in livestock rearing,” Sonayon noted in a chat with Saturday PUNCH. Read more