Poultry farmers send SOS to northern govs over glut of eggs

Northern governors have been urged to facilitate enactment of a law that will compel the northern states to include egg among the list of foodstuffs being supplied to schools in their respective states. A renowned poultry farmer and Chairman of Nana Farms Kano, Alhaji Aminu Adamu, who made the plea in an interview with our […]

Northern governors have been urged to facilitate enactment of a law that will compel the northern states to include egg among the list of foodstuffs being supplied to schools in their respective states.

A renowned poultry farmer and Chairman of Nana Farms Kano, Alhaji Aminu Adamu, who made the plea in an interview with our reporter, said if enacted, the law would help in addressing glut of eggs, a problem that is negatively affecting poultry business in the region.

He explained that the northern governors should make it compulsory that each student in primary and secondary schools must be given an egg per day. 

Alhaji Adamu added that the arrangement would augment poultry business and boost the region’s economy as well.

“Zamfara state has set example during the regime of its former governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakura who enacted a law that makes it compulsory to give one egg to each student daily. The policy is greatly helping poultry farmers because the state government is buying large quantity of eggs from them for onward supply to schools.

“If Zamfara can achieve this, why the rest of northern states cannot try it? It will help the economy of the states, the region and the nation as a whole.

“What is currently happening is that the consumers are forced not to eat eggs because the price is beyond their reach even though they are willing to eat it. And this has caused serious glut of the product in the region. So, if the 19 northern states can adopt this system, they will save the business and at the same time reduce malnutrition among students,” he said.

He also advised poultry farmers in the region to evolve ways of addressing the glut, saying they should not totally rely on government to solve their problems.

He suggested that the farmers could establish egg board which would promote consumption of eggs, unify the price, make standardization, take responsibility of packaging the eggs and sell it to the buyers.

He lamented that poultry farmers in the region had witnessed serious glut of eggs in the last three months, saying he had sold create of eggs at N580 as against its  former price of between N1000 and N1200.

The chairman also called on the federal government to ensure payment of compensation to poultry farmers affected by Avian Influenza also known as Bird Flu.

He recalled that over 3.5 million birds valued at N2.4bn were killed across the country between December 2015 and January 2016 on the directives of the federal government.
He said government only paid the affected farmers N750m, while the balance of N1.7bn had not been paid almost two years after the unfortunate incident.

“The birds of the affected farmers were depopulated in an effort to address the spread of the disease, but two years now, no compensation is paid. I am afraid that if government did not pay them compensation, anytime a similar outbreak happen, farmers will resist any attempt by the government to kill their birds. Instead, they will sell the birds in the market and that will mean spreading the disease further,” he warned.

Adamu therefore, urged government to quickly settle the affected farmers to avert the unnecessary lost in the poultry business sub-sector in the region.