Owing to high cost of feed, and fuel subsidy removal, Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN) FCT chapter has raised concern over the shutdown of over 127 poultry farms in Abuja and the loss of over N100 million in last on year.

The Secretary of Association Musa Hakeem during the World Egg Day celebrations in Abuja lamented that the industry is faced with multiple challenges saying while the Industry struggling to recover from impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hit with cashless policy by the Central Bank and now fuel subsidy removal, high cost of maize, unavailability of materials for feeds is making many of the farms shut down.

While stressing need for urgent intervention by the FCT Minister Nyeson Wike, Hakeem stated that many farms in the FCT are finding it difficult to stay afloat.

Moreso, he lamented since the post-COVID-19 pandemic era in 2020, they are yet to get any support from government as they only hear of government interventions in the news, saying despite reporting the case of destruction of some farms in the FCT by strong wind earlier this year to the Animal Husbandry department of the FCT, they still have not received any support.

He said 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.

A member of Poultry Association FCT chapter Abdullahi Abduljabar noted 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.

While noting the continuous increase in prices of egg in recent past, he said 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 pointed out that recently they have 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.

The ex-officio North Central Poultry Association of Nigeria Ibrahim Lamidi stated that the price egg from the farm gate is N2500 so we are pleading with the FCT minister to include them in the school feeding program as egg is important for school children.

He stated that the high-cost poultry feed transportation is making it difficult for poultry farmers to meet up with the demand but if they are able to participate in the school feeding program it will go a long way for farmers to bounce back and there will be adequate supply of egg in the society. (Saturday Guardian)