Dili, January 9, 2025 (Média Democracia) – Many imported foods from abroad contain chemicals, therefore young people took the initiative to establish a free-range chicken farming company so that the people of Timor-Leste would not be dependent on imported foods from abroad that contain chemicals.
Claudion Xavier Martins as a 29-year-old young man from Hatulia, Ermera, has the initiative to establish a free-range chicken farming company named, “Micla Tabao” which raises free-range chickens and ducks. In addition, he not only serves as the Director of the company but also a member of TILOFE Ermera. This company was established in 2020 until now, the initiative to establish this company was to increase income in the village to the municipality and also to increase family income to support the family economy.
He said that when he first founded this company, he and his family raised local chickens because he had previously done a little research in Hatulia A and Ermera and it turned out that there was a lot of food there that contained chemicals from abroad.
“I took the initiative to establish a free-range chicken farming company, another thing I saw was that many young people had dropped out of school and were not progressing, so I opened this company to give them jobs, especially in this hamlet, besides that it can also support my family and my child’s school,” he told Média Democracia’s reporter via telephone call on January 8, 2025.
In addition, he raises local chickens because based on his observations, in Timor-Leste the community uses local chickens in cultural activities.
“So with this initiative I continue raising local chickens that we have been doing to maintain the sustainability of our indigenous community, we can also offer them to schools as lunch boxes because so far we see that they consume a lot of food containing chemicals, so with local chickens we can offer them for traditional activities, to schools and we can also offer them to the market.” He said.
He informed that he started this business in 2020, with a total of 8 hens and 2 roosters, and currently he has many chickens to support his family, including sending his younger siblings to school.
“Now our local chickens have increased, since 2020 until now the profits we have obtained from raising local chickens, I can send my two younger siblings to school in Indonesia and one of them can become a Sister in this country, with my own initiative I can help my family.” He added
He explained that several months ago the Micla Tabao Company had allocated local chickens to the Gleno market, Loes market and also the Bobonaro city market.
“We also allocate some to the EBC Tata school and four filial schools in Hatulia A, besides what I mentioned, every year we as the Micla Tabao company also allocate chickens to traditional houses when it is time to harvest corn based on the existing price.” He added.
He emphasized that currently there are 110 local chickens and 20 ducks.
“Currently, there are 110 local chickens and 20 ducks, because a few months ago, there were Chinese residents who came to buy using a car, so there are only these ducks,” he said.
He explained that the difficulty in raising chickens is when the chickens are sick and there is no food, but he has to find a way to care for the chickens.
“Talking about the treatment of native chickens, we all know that every year chickens always get sick, this always happens in Timor-Leste. Here we work together with the post extension workers so that when the chicken eggs hatch we will contact the extension workers to vaccinate the chicks, we work together with the extension workers and also sometimes we also use local medicines which are our own culture so that the chickens do not get sick.” He affirmed
He added that counseling in the village from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Florest when we need to vaccinate chickens is always provided free of charge, but sometimes company also buy their own medicine to vaccinate the chickens.
He also observed that vaccinated and unvaccinated chickens were the same, it depended on whether the food they ate was nutritious or not, then also looking at health, especially the place, food, water and so on.
He added about chicken feed, they as farmers who make fields, when they run out of food they have to buy it.
“We know that local chicken feed uses corn and rice, but we also combine it with the feed we buy, so we take it home to pound for local chicken feed, including ducks,” he said.
Micla Tabao company localizes in Tata sub-village, Ai-Lelo village, Hatulia A, Ermera.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania