Poultry Association of Nigeria, on Tuesday has demanded a compensation from Nigeria's Federal government, over mass loss in their various poultry businesses.
This waa made known at the year 2022 edition of the Nigerian Poultry Show (NPS 2022) held yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
While speaking, the South West Chairman of the association, Gideon Oluleye made the demand while delivering his address, thereby demanding a special fund as compensation its members whose businesses were ravaged by the natural disasters of flooding, as well as the Avian influenza popularly referred to as "birds flu".
The event is an annual poultry show where poultry farmers from different parts of the country always converge to deliberate on the challenges confronting the industry and its stakeholders, as well as examining ways of making progress in their business.
Aside from beef, poultry products is another major supplier of protein in the country and Stakeholders say they have to restrategize in order to sustain the poultry industry amidst global economic crisis.
Speaking at the event, which has as its theme: "Sustaining The Nigerian Poultry Industry Amidst Global Economic Crisis", which witnessed a convergence of poultry farmers nationwide, as well as government representatives of all the South West zone, Oluleye said the call became exigent in view of the losses uncured by the PAN members, particularly in the year 2021 which threatened their existence in the sector.
Lamenting the huge losses recorded by farmers during the outbreak, which he said equated the COVID-19 pandemic, Oluleye emphasized that the federal government's compensation for the affected farmers will amount to guaranteeing a good security for the industry which available statistics has proven to have provided employment for over 25 million Nigerians.
"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."
He also called on the Federal government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make more funds available for farmers to help them grow their businesses and also contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 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 subsidise the major inputs which is maize and soya much more than they have been doing before and grant more loan on long term to farmers in order to protect the sector from imminent collapse".
In his goodwill message, the acting National President of the Association, Dr. Yusuf Ibrahim admonished poultry farmers to take advantage of opportunities available in the sector, particularly with the modern technology to grow by adopting modern researches and technology.
The South West Commissioners of Agriculture in attendance, which included that of Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos States also shared their views on the situation and how to succeed in poultry business
In his own goodwill message, the commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun state, Dr. Samson Adeola Odedina charged the farmers to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and support provided by the government to boost their businesses.
Odedina also advise the farmers to engage in backward integration by planting maize and soya to address the acute shortage of grains and other feed ingredients.
The guest lecturer at the event urged poultry farmers not to look at the challenges but to look inwards for opportunities and adopt modern model of poultry farming business.
He also lament poor usage of land in the country, noting that many hecters of land were acquired for agricultural purposes but are underutilized. He sighted an example of University of Agriculture with more than 10, 000 hecters of land but yet to use 2,000 hecters after many years of operation.
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