‘FG should provide incentives for poultry farmers’

What are the challenges facing poultry farmers in the country?The challenges are many but I will only mention few; one of them is funding, it is almost impossible to make money as a poultry farmer, especially if you borrow money at the current commercial interest rate in financial institutions in the country. Second, is the […]

What are the challenges facing poultry farmers in the country?
The challenges are many but I will only mention few; one of them is funding, it is almost impossible to make money as a poultry farmer, especially if you borrow money at the current commercial interest rate in financial institutions in the country. Second, is the cost of raw materials, like maize, soya bean and groundnut used for poultry feeds. All these raw materials used for chicken feed production account for 70 percent cost of poultry farming and it is between 50 to 100 percent higher in Nigeria than in many countries  of the world . The current minister of agriculture is working very hard to increase output and we believe that will affect the cost of production. But in the interim, government needs to come up with various incentives and actions to encourage poultry farmers. We have recommended many methods in the past that will reduced the burden poultry farmers are currently facing in the country.
Outside support from government, as the national president, how do you intend to help poultry farmers?
We are working with the government to initiate programmes that would soften the load for poultry farmers. Policy has to be formulated with the survival and growth of farmers in mind. So we will start from the interaction with government in terms of policy formulation and work with poultry farmers in the area of training. Poultry farmers in other parts of the world produce 310 to 320 per chicken per year but here we are at an average of 210 per chicken per year hence we are training our farmers to bridge that gap. The more efficient they run their farms the better.
Aside the funding and raw materials, another very big challenge are the markets. We need to get Nigerians to appreciate the benefit of eating an egg a day. In countries like China, Japan and the United States, people consume over 300 eggs per person per year and they have life expectancy of over 80 years. Egg is the most valuable protein that we have. High maternal mortality rate, high infant mortality rate, and performance of students in sport and school can be significantly enhanced by eating diet containing eggs.
So we need the government to get more people to understand and appreciate eggs. We have realised that the myth surrounding the egg which started in the United States in the 70s has been proved to be wrong. A person in the United States consumes 200 eggs per year and we consume 60 per year. We pray that we get the support of government to make the change.
What incentives are the poultry farmers benefiting from the GES so far?
First of all the minister of agriculture has come up with Growth Enhance Scheme in which farmers are entitled to inputs at subsidised rate. Poultry farmers can key into this. Like I said, training is very important because we have a knowledge deficit and as an association, opportunities are there for training poultry farmers on the best management practices. Also, financial relationship with Bank of Agriculture, the Central Bank of Nigeria and other financial institutions would be improved upon to reduce the cost for farmers.
Have smallholder poultry farmers benefited from any form of loan facilitated by the federal government?
We are still waiting to be carried along in that direction. We have not been able to properly harness this opportunity and we are looking forward to a time when the relevant agency will work with the poultry industry to achieve that.