The U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council (USGBC) recently held its second train-the-trainers session in Senegal, empowering local feed and poultry industry stakeholders to be leaders in their communities and continue to increase overall sector skill and capacity.
USGBC Regional Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Ramy H. Taieb, USGBC Deputy Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Salah Bouthour and USGBC Consultant for Senegal Daouda Guindo attended the event to enhance the technical skills of poultry farmers and feed manufacturers.
The training session adopted a more inclusive, hands-on approach, directly involving poultry producers and feed manufacturers. Trainers previously trained in Tunisia selected 70 qualified participants and identified two key regions to serve as operational hubs.
“The Council’s team in the EMEA region is committed to direct capacity-building efforts in Senegal, with plans to extend its reach to the wider region in a second phase, inviting U.S. supplier members to participate in Council programs alongside Sub-Saharan African feed and grain producers,” Bouthour said.
Training topics included economic management protocols, monitoring of layer hen health and productivity and visits to a model farm to witness an efficient poultry operation in action.
While in Dakar, the Council’s team met with representatives from Senegal’s two largest feed mills, including one that started importing U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) after a Council-sponsored training in Tunisia.
The group also met with the Senegalese Poultry Association to discuss future training course opportunities and visited small-scale aquaculture farms to study how U.S. corn co-products could be a benefit to the local industry.
“In general, as Senegal’s feed industry continues to grow, the Council will maintain its efforts to raise awareness among local stakeholders about the advantages of incorporating U.S. corn co-products into feed formulas,” Taieb said.
“Engaging the private feed mill sector with information about U.S. corn and corn co-products, as well as further training in container and bulk logistics and container discharge techniques, will help build capacity for corn and corn co-products in Senegal and neighboring countries as additional ports are being constructed in the region simultaneously.”
Learn more about the Council’s work in Senegal here.