Poultry industry on verge of total collapse, PAN cries to Tinubu

Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has told President Bola Tinubu that if urgent steps are not taken, the poultry industry will collapse totally.

The farmers said that the poultry industry that contributes 25 percent to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Products (AGDP) is being starved of maize which is an essential component in producing feed for chicken.

They further stated that the high surge of prices of maize and the near absence or scarcity of the product is causing farmers to close down their poultry farms at the moment because it is no longer sustainable to feed the birds and be in business, thereby threatening further development of the Nigerian poultry industry.

This is contained in a statement signed by the National President of PAN, Chief Sunday Ezeobiora, and the Director-General of the association, Onallo  Akpa.

The statement said, “It will interest Nigerians to know that as part of the measures to ensure the food security of the nation through the supply of cheap protein to Nigerians, the poultry industry in the country has benefited from allocation of maize from the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) of the Federal Government as well as the Strategic Maize Reserve (SMR) programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anchored on the Accelerated Agriculture programmes of the CBN.

“In the current dispensation and scheme of things, the poultry industry is being frustrated by the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) and the SMR of the CBN whence it was allocated 40,000 metric tonnes of maize to assist poultry production in the country and in two weeks, they cancelled the allocation and stopped poultry farmers from lifting the maize on the conditions best known to them and thereby majorly contributing to the high prices of maize in the markets because of holding down their stocks of maize.”

The farmers said the poultry industry in Nigeria is the most critical subsector of Nigeria’s agriculture and allowing the industry to collapse on the watch of Nigerians in situations where there are visible immediate solutions will be a disaster to the industry and the protein supply and nutrition security for the country.

PAN therefore prayed to the Federal Government to “direct both the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which manages the Strategic Maize Reserve Programme (SMRP) of the CBN to free the allocations of 40,000 metric tonnes to the poultry industry through the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).

“That the government should direct the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to release 20,000 metric tonnes of maize from the Strategic Food Reserves of the ministry to the poultry industry through the Poultry Association of Nigeria at discounted prices so as to mitigate the current challenges to the poultry industry in the country.

“That the allocations by both organisations should be at the rate (price) per metric tonne that the allocations were made understanding that these organisations are to intervene in critical sectors of the economy for developmental purposes and not merchandise.

“The poultry industry is the low hanging fruit to achieve the overall objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and providing employments while producing affordable home-grown proteins to Nigerians.”

“Since the poultry industry is the most capitalised subsector of the Nigerian agriculture, 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.”