Fourteen foreign officials join UNDP poultry program

JAKARTA (JP): At least 14 officials from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Madagascar, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and West Samoa are currently taking part in a United Nations Development Program-sponsored poultry husbandry training program in Ciawi, West Java.

Sri Gationo, the training coordinator, said yesterday the subjects in the two-month course include nutrition, health, housing and equipment, breeding and hatching as well as management and technology of poultry products.

"The course is aimed at giving participants the opportunity to learn and exchange their experiences on poultry husbandry," Gationo told The Jakarta Post.

Gationo said participants were provided with practical lessons on making chicken nests from bamboo, simple incubators for hatching eggs and dealing with livestock diseases.

The training course is part of the Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) program run by the Indonesian government. It will end on Dec. 12 this year.

TCDC, organized by the Cabinet Secretary, aims at transferring Indonesian experience and technology to other developing countries, he said.

TCDC programs are financed by the Indonesian government, UNDP and the Japanese government.

Maruf Hassan, a Bangladeshi participant, said he gained much from the training.

"Livestock is the most important income source for most Bangladeshis, that's why practical knowledge from the course will be very constructive to develop poultry management in my country," he said.

"I learned new methods in feeding and housing that could be implanted to help most Cambodian people who still raise chickens in traditional ways," said EM Sokhom, a participant from Cambodia.

According to UNDP data, since 1993 UNDP has allocated to the program almost US$2.3 million and about $200,000 was given by the Japanese government.

"Besides the fund from UNDP, the Indonesian government allocates special funds for TCDC in the State Budget," said Suprapto, the head of Indonesia's TCDC program.

The budget for TCDC was increased to an estimated Rp 1.5 billion (US$6 million) for the 1996/1997 period from about Rp 1.3 billion in the 1995/1996 period, he said.

He said TCDC organized 24 training programs in Indonesia this year, covering agriculture, family planning, irrigation and housing.

The TCDC program was also applied by other developing countries as an adoption of the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries. (04)