The First Intra-African Seminar-Workshop on Ostrich Production in Cameroon will be held at the Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Buea, on the 31st May 2025. This will take place at the Professor Fujii Agroecology Laboratory. Guided by the Support Programme for the University of Buea Livestock Production and Agripreneurship Students Business Incubator (SP UB LPA SBI), the seminar-workshop is geared towards the creation of an innovation platform on Ostrich Production in Cameroon. This innovation platform will be animated within the framework of the University of Buea Livestock Development Market Place (UB LDMP). The workshop has been conceived under the theme: Farming the Future in a Changing Climate.

Ostriches are raised commercially for their meat, hide and feathers. Ostrich meat has less fat (1.0g/100g of raw meat) compared to chicken (2.6g/100g) and beef (15.6g/100g). Its leather is one of the most luxurious and most often compared with crocodile and snake. In addition, the feathers are used for cleaning fine machinery and equipment and also used for decorations. The potential of ostriches for an economic turnaround to a farmer is higher, compared to farm animals of similar size like cattle. For example, while a cow will take 280 days of gestation to produce one (1) calf, which when raised for 365days will produce 250 kg of beef, an ostrich hen will produce about 40 chicks within the same period.

These chicks, which when raised in 365 days, will produce 1800 kg of meat. Furthermore, while the cow within the same period will produce about 2.7 m2 of leather, the ostrich hen will produce about 50.4 m2. In addition to this, the ostrich hen would have produced about 36 kg of feathers. It has been estimated that modern husbandry practices can lead one ostrich hen over its lifetime, to produce about 72 tons of meat, 2000 m2 of leather and 1450 kg of feathers. These potentials of ostrich has led to the description of ostrich production as’ farming of the future’ (Shanawany, 2021).
The ostrich (struthio camelus) is the largest bird on earth. Adult males can weigh about 100kg and stand about 2.4 m tall. It belongs to the family of flightless birds (ratite). It is indigenous to Africa and the Middle East.
However, wild ostriches are only found today in Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic and Senegal. Ostriches can live in every continent of the world, except Antarctica.
Ostrich farming has great potential in Cameroon especially with the changing climate. It can serve as an appropriate adaptation response to climate change in addition to the diversification of agricultural exports, employment and import substitution. This is because ostrich products have a global demand, and can contribute to the improvements of the balance of payment situation for Cameroon.
Despite the potential, ostrich farming has not received due attention from Scientists as many stakeholders are in ignorance. Therefore, an innovation platform that puts together all stakeholders including farmers, researchers, input suppliers and policy makers will go a long way to guide Africa and Cameroon into the farming of the future.
It is with the above background that the University of Buea, will be hosting the First Intra African Seminar-workshop on Ostrich Production in Cameroon on the 31st of May 2025 at the Professor Fujji Agroecology laboratory, in collaboration with experts from the Bostwana Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security (MoA) and the Bostwana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN).

Ewane Divine (JP) PhD
Principal Investigator, SP-UB LPA SBI and Seminar-Workshop Organizer.
Ag. Head of Department

References
Shanawany, M. M. Recent Developments in Ostrich farming, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) https://www.fao.org/4/v6200t/v6200t02.htm (Accessed 3/10/2025)

Registration link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf06BLliF90OQ0mU0ZgXUSqWVwSRNNw2kEgviuSd1XkjjK_1Q/viewform?usp=header