AgribusinessGhana

Poultry industry needs clear policy direction to improve

The chairman of the Poultry Farmers’ Association says the sector needs a policy that distinguishes between specialised commercial poultry farming and other types of production

Ghana News Agency (Accra) – The lack of a clear policy direction governing the poultry industry in Ghana is affecting the industry negatively, the Upper West regional chairman of the Poultry Farmers’ Association has said.

Tornia Abu Sidiki said the industry was not well organised and poultry farmers are operating haphazardly because of the lack of a policy to standardise the sector.

He explained that the poultry industry is a specialised area being run by unspecialised people, hence the need for a directional framework that defines the various levels of poultry farming as an organised sector.

“There is a need for a clear-cut policy that distinguishes between specialised commercial poultry farming and local poultry farming. That will make the industry very organised and orderly,” Sidiki said in an interview with the GNA.

Potential employment

He argued that the policy should also distinguish between the levels of funding for specific types of poultry farming, as the financing required differs.

Although the poultry industry presents a huge potential source of economic and employment benefits for the state, the industry is stagnating because of the limited attention it receives, Sidiki said.

“If 5% of Ghanaians consume 100 grams of poultry protein a day with a projected population of 30 million, and taking the average weight of a bird to be 2.5 kilograms, then the country would require 21.9 million birds to feed the 5% of the population a year,” he said.

The feed for thsee birds – grains and legumes such as maize, wheat bran and soybeans – would also, of course, be produced by farmers and people would be required to take care of the millions of additional birds, creating vast scope for new jobs.

Sidiki said free-range poultry keeping has outgrown the specialised commercial poultry farming because of Ghanaians’ attitude to poultry products. We do not care about the source of poultry products we consume, he said, which has has a negative impact on the sector.

He also advocated an organised and co-ordinated market for poultry products as applies to the cocoa sector. This will help minimise competition between specialised commercial and local non-commercial poultry farmers, he said.

Rearing for Food and Jobs

Data from the Animal Production Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture shows that the national demand for poultry meat alone is about 400,000 metric tonnes. Local production stands at just about 57,871 metric tonnes. Poultry meat imports stand at about 180,000 metric tonnes. That leaves a shortfall of over 162,000 tonnes.

To meet this demand, the government launched the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) initiative in June 2019 under the theme “Self-Sufficiency in Meat Production – a Must”. Its aim is to modernise and transform agriculture to increase food production, expand jobs and earn more foreign exchange by rearing livestock such as poultry and sheep.

The RFJ target for the poultry sector is to produce 40,000 metric tonnes of broiler meat on a pilot basis this year and scale up production subsequently. However, there remains a need for a standardised policy for the poultry subsector if this target is to be achieved.

* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online.
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