Fourteen foreign officials join UNDP poultry program
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)