Ms Telemahau Shares Experience
BY LIVETT MYRNE COMFORT
Margaret Telemahau, 27, is a new livestock officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) based at Gizo.
She’s enthusiastic about her job since graduating from SINU two years ago, but then she learned new challenges while in the field and also sees difficulties faced by local farmers in the province.
During her past two years in Gizo, she realized that a lot of local people are not aware of the livestock division in Gizo, more particularly her office and what officers can do to help farmers.
Ms Telemahau with another woman colleague manned the office in the Western Provincial Headquarters, which she described as a gender balance in the government ministry, as the department used to be manned by male officers.
“Interesting thing about this job is, I’m not always in the office, but also go out in the communities to help people.” She said. “people in the villages are raising livestock but it’s not easy for them to access markets.”
Not only that, Ms Telemahau pointed out that people in Gizo and neighbouring Islands do not frequent her office for advice. And that is obvious when I visited her office she said, she spends the whole reading from her laptop computer.
A lot of people don’t know about this office, she said “recently a woman who have a pig that was ill came to us seeking help, that was the first time that woman learned about what we can do.”
“If you want to raise livestock for sale, we are here to help you, we also do house design for Piggery and Poultry.” She said.
“Our job is to provide advice on livestock such as pig, chicken, goat, duck and Cattle. We look at animal health, Animal feed and injections. So, I coordinate those activities and lead activities on food security for livestock management.”
Ms Telemahau also emphasised the importance of food security. She said food security management is very important in the development of livestock as it contributes to animal nutrition. Farmers need to produce good meat as well as prevent sickness. Animals also need good nutrition. And food security also means the availability of sufficient protein, farmers must have access to that or in other words, foodstuff must be accessible to sustain livestock.
“We have our work plan, and I coordinate that, especially on monitoring, and follow-ups on farmers who received projects. Here in Gizo “we visited a private piggery farmer here in Gizo, he started his farm from his own struggle. In Gizo, there’s a lot of protein for piggery farmers so it’s okay.” She said.
“I see no layer and broiler farmers here may be due to ‘feed’ is expensive, because they have to order from Honiara.”
“If you want to receive a project you have to first start by yourself and show what you can do, then I can assist with how to get projects. But not everyone will receive projects.”
“Our Job here also depends on the headquarters in Honiara. On medication for pigs, we depend on HQ to provide us.”
“To be successful in piggery farming, farmers must understand the details on how to keep the animal, and able to identify changes in the animal especially when the animal is ill.”
She maintains that farmers must not neglect their animals, as many failed because they failed to keep the animals well and so produce with less value.
She encourages livestock farmers to always provide the best feeding routine, sufficient clean water and a clean house for animal hygiene. And not forget to also seek advice from others who are already successful.
