By Our Correspondent
Worried by the huge loss following the outbreak of avian influenza, (bird flu), the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), has appealed to the federal government to compensate poultry farmers, whose farms were affected by the outbreak of deadly virus
The South West Chairman of the Association, Gideon Oluleye, who made the appeal at the 2022 Nigeria Poultry Show with the theme “Sustaining the Nigerian poultry industry amidst global economic crisis”, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, noted that poultry farmers lost over 200,000 birds to the flu this year.
While stressing that this had haphazardly affected the industry, he sought government commitment to ameliorate the losses incurred by the affected farmers.
He explained that the poultry industry had remained one of the sub-sectors that must be adequately attended to by the federal government through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He added that making more funds available for farmers would help them in their businesses, and equally contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
The Poultry show, the 10th in the series, was attended by stakeholders in the industry and Commissioners for Agriculture in the South West States.
Oluleye said, “We need some form of compensation from the Federal government for our farmers who lost their farms to the outbreak of bird flu during the year.
“Many of our members lost their birds and their means of livelihood following the outbreak of bird flu. Millions of naira were also lost to the outbreak.
“We recorded huge losses to the bird flu that ravaged the country this year. We are calling on the federal government to please compensate our members who were affected by this unfortunate incident for the survival of the poultry industry.
“The poultry industry is a subsector of the Nigerian economy that provides employment to over 25 million people both direct and indirect employment. As a result of this, we are urging Nigeria government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and other levels of government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to give more funding to the sector, pointing out that the sector can generate huge employment opportunities for the jobless youths and earn foreign exchange for the country.
“Other reasons why government must fund this sector the more are the current built-in inflation within the economy that has pushed up the cost of inputs, climate change, dwindling economy, internal security and Ukraine-Russian war which has further taken its toll in impacting negatively the poultry subsector of the country.
“All levels of government and the Central Bank should therefore budget more funding to the sector and subsidize the major inputs which is maize and soya much more than they have been doing before and grant more loans on long term to farmers in order to protect the sector from imminent collapse,” Oluleye said.
The Chairman, the Local Organizing Committee of NPS, Dr Lekan Odunsi, also submitted that poultry industry is worst affected by the present nation’s economy.
He identified insecurity, the high cost of inputs especially grains (Soya and Maize) as some of the key challenges confronting the industry, while appealing to the federal government to assist in curtailing the crisis.
In his speech, the Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Samson Adeola Odedina advised the farmers to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and support provided by the government to boost their businesses.
Odedina also advises the farmers to engage in backward integration by planting maize and soya to address the acute shortage of grains and other feed ingredients.
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