The poultry industry in Nigeria is facing a myriad of problems that might lead to a shutdown of many production farms.
According to the President, Kings’ Arms Incorporated, High Chief Kehinde Enilolobo, the situation has reached a level that many farmers are unable to continue in business for reasons mainly of poor access to finance for growth/expansion, skyrocketting inputs costs, scarcity of day old chicks, devastating diseases outbreaks, among other factors.
“For instance, feed accounts for 60-70% of operational costs while prices of its essential ingredients like maize and soybean meal have surged due to inflation, insecurity in farming regions and high demand, thereby drastically reducing farmes’ profit margins”, he said.
He called on government to, as a matter of urgency, create interventions in the following areas:
***Legislating and making available single digit interest loans……. for practising farmers of all types and categories.
***Subsidising inputs to ensure abundance of poultry feed…..supporting massive production of maize and soybeans.
***Encouraging value addition and processing…..reducing post harvest losses and gluts, for example, processing eggs into storable powdered forms.
***Boosting production infrastructure…. such as electricity, access roads, cold storage chains, among others.
***Modernising production techniques…such as use of solar powered incubators and automated feeding systems.
################
