Following the high cost of feed due to the fuel subsidy removal, Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN) Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter has raised alarm over the shutdown of over 127 poultry farms in Abuja and the loss of over N100 million in last 3years.
Musa Hakeem, the Secretary of PAN, while speaking with journalists during the World Egg Day celebration in Abuja said the poultry industry is faced with series of challenges.
Hakeem said while the Industry is struggling to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cashless policy by the central Bank set in, now fuel subsidy removal, high cost of maize, unavailability of materials for feeds is making many of the farms shut down.
While harping on need for urgent intervention by the authorities of the FCT, Hakeem stated that many farms in the FCT are finding it difficult to stay afloat.
He further lamented that since the post COVID-19 pandemic era in 2020, poultry farmers have yet to get any support from the government.
He said despite reporting the cases of destruction of some farms in the FCT by wind early this year to the Animal Husbandry department of the FCT, they still have not received any support.
“We are calling on the FCT minister to ensure that poultry industry in the FCT is well supported so that more investors can come in to provide employment opportunities for the women and youths.
Another member of PAN FCT chapter Abdullahi Abduljabar said that the challenges is not limited to the FCT but the entire poultry industry, saying the industry is daily losing investments, huge sum of money from investors who genuinely wanted to contribute to the growth of the Industry.
“The increase in price is not because the farmers want to create burden on the consumers, but because of the challenges as the cost of feed vary from time to time”, he said.
Furthermore, Abduljabar pointed out that recently, they observed that the quality of poultry feeds have dropped significantly, which has reflected on the production margin of the layers saying for instance, a farm that use to produce 50 creates of eggs can hardy produce 15 creates of eggs.
“We are calling on the relevant authorities to look into these challenges so that the sector does not collapse”, he said.
Ibrahim Lamidi, an ex-officio, North Central PAN, said the price of an egg from the farm gate is N2500. “So we are pleading to the FCT minister to include them in the school feeding program as egg is important for school children”.