Poultry Farmers Need Government Support.

Mr. Napoleon Agyemang Oduro, the Vice Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers has said in a recent interview of the need of Government to support and save the country’s poultry production.

Since 2000 till date, the industry has realised a 60 percent decrements to about 5 percent in domestically broiler production.

Meanwhile imports has since increased from about 13,900 metric tons to over 155,000 metric tons.
This is a clear indication of the industry’s nearing to collapse.

Mr. Joe Jackson, the Director of Operation at Dalex Finance has also commented on the nearing collapse of the poultry industry and its need to be saved in time.
“The cheapest protein in this country is chicken and we import the chicken. We have to start producing them locally and we have the ability to do that. This solution ensures that not only are we getting jobs for our people, not only are we creating the demand, we are ensuring our food security”, he said.

According to the Minster of Food and Agriculture, Ghana’s poultry meat demand stands at 400,000 metric tons per year.
Domestic production stands at around 57,870 metric tons.
Ghana imports 300,000 metric tons of chicken annually at a cost of 374 million dollars.
This translates into five million chicken production weekly.

Mr. Napoleon Agyemang Oduro, the National Vice Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers has told TV3 news which was later monitored by GhanaArticles of how COVID 19 has worsened the situation but he is of a positive spirit that the situation would be used to their benefit.

“Everything cannot be alright overnight. We need to put ideas together to determine where necessary investments are needed to be able to produce the chicken needs of the country”, he advised. “If policymakers and producers will come together, we think we can tap into the opportunities that avail”
However, the project, National Broiler Revitalization (GHABROP) which was aimed at boosting local capacity of broiler production can best be described as failed.
The National Vice Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers again commented concerning the need of massive investment through the value chain and also the need to do a strategic investment into poultry processing.
“There is the need for massive investment through the value chained. We have to do strategic investment into processing because the quantity of chicken we’re talking about. They can’t be hand-fed. We need to use machine and equipment in the process”, he said.

For Ghana to realize a drastic increase in the domestic production of poultry, it will mean that all stakeholders in the industry would have to perform their roles effectively.