‘Scarcity of soya beans threaten poultry business’

The farmers, at a news conference and interactive session on the celebration of the World Egg Day in Abeokuta, lamented that the scarcity has brought untold hardship to them as they now have to look for the essential ingredients in various parts of the country as they struggle to sustain their farms and remain in […]

The farmers, at a news conference and interactive session on the celebration of the World Egg Day in Abeokuta, lamented that the scarcity has brought untold hardship to them as they now have to look for the essential ingredients in various parts of the country as they struggle to sustain their farms and remain in business.
The chairman of PAN in the state, Dr. Lekan Odunsi, said the poor attendance at the briefing “is not unconnected with the scarcity of soya beans, adding that “every poultry farmer today is looking for soya beans to buy for his birds. Even those of us here today, are here with our half minds. The situation is getting worrisome.
“We are appealing and as well sending an SOS to the federal government to give partial lift on importation of soya beans in order to reduce the agony poultry farmers are going through to get the essential feeds,” he said.
The chairman, local organizing committee of the celebration, Jelili Odesola, attributed the scarcity to the current insurgency in some parts of the northern part of country, hinting that the countries, like Chad, where the product is largely grown had been blocked as a result of the insurgency problem.
The PAN chairman also said that despite the dangers associated with consumption of some animals, as it relates to contracting the Ebola virus, “egg consumption is very much very free from Ebola, either cooked, boiled, fried or half cooked,” he said.
“That is the new message for Nigerians. Our fear in eating just any animal for the fear of Ebola is not there with eggs,” Odunsi added, even as he lamented that Nigerians rate of egg consumption is still low. In spite of many advantages of eating eggs, we are still far from the rate at which people are eating eggs globally.”
In his lecture on the theme of this year’s celebration, “Human Impacts on Egg Consumption,” Dr. Segun Onabanjo from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) said the theme was appropriate as consumption of eggs has actually improved the nutritional value in families across the world.