Group , Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) Thursday called on the federal government to resuscitate all grain reserve in southeast.
These the association believe would help in addressing the raising food insecurity in Nigeria,
The association explained that farmers traveling to the northern part of the country to source for grains, pay transportation and other tax and levy’s on the highway are one of the reasons prices of poultry (food) commodities are skyrocketing making life difficult for the end users who can no longer access the commodities in the market.
PAN in a statement signed by the Vice President and zonal secretary Onu Izuolisa, and Monday Ejiegbu tagged “impending collapse of poultry sector in Nigeria, a call for immediate attention”, pointed that the low purchasing power of the naira occasioned by the ever increasing rate of the dollar has also made it difficult for farmers to access feed for their chickens and such is also hindering the production.
The statement read in parts, in view of the above and in order to salvage the Poultry industry from the imminent collapse it is witnessing, the Leadership of the Poultry Association of Nigeria prays: “All strategic grain reserve in southeast and South South should be resuscitated and put back into use with immediate effect to save millers and farmers the grueling challenge of transporting grains from outside the zones with all the attendant risk.
“We implore the NDDC and other interventionist agencies to move in and partner with PAN in the area of poultry and poultry product preservation and storage. The agency can intervene by establishing blast freezing facilities in strategic location for farmers within the Nine Niger Delta States in the zones.
“”They can also provide seed funds for mop up and redistribution of eggs from farms to alleviate the burden of egg glut where applicable.
“The CBN and the ministry of agriculture should as a matter of urgency consider the release of vital grains like maize and soya from the strategic maize reserve SMR and the strategic food reserve SFR to poultry association of Nigeria at a subsidized price to cushion the effect of the rising cost of these materials in the market and its attendant inflationary effect on the industry.
“As at today the prices of soya and maize ranges between N530,000 to N550,000 per ton and the prices is still rising every day, therefore urgent release of maize and soya at discounted price to farmers will go a long way to mitigate the current challenges in the poultry sector.
Any further delay on this all important interventions is likely going to result ultimately in the total extinction of the poultry sub sector.”
The PAN decried that about fifty percent (50%) of poultry farms are already shut down with many more likely to follow suit because of the high cost of commodity.
And that the consequences of this scenario and its negative impact on agricultural Gross Domestic Products (AGDP), employment and availability of healthy protein to the Nigerian masses can best be imagined.
“Since the Poultry industry is the most capitalized subsector of the Nigerian Agricultural industry, every effort and support should be given to the subsector so that the Industry does not collapse and the country once more becoming dumping grounds for all sorts of Poultry and Poultry products from abroad.
The leadership of the association further condemn in very strong terms the rising spate of kidnapping and killing of members of the association in the zone especially in Enugu state.
They urged the government to deplore the necessary security apparatus to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to book and prevent further reoccurrence.
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