Feed millers, under the aegis of Feed Industry Practitioners Association of Nigeria (FIPAN), have raised an alarm that if the Federal Government failed to immediately address the challenges facing the poultry industry, the country may soon rely on poultry products from other countries.

The President of the association, Raymond Isidinaso, who addressed journalists said the high cost of eggs, chicken, fish and other poultry products, is as a result of scarcity of maize and soya bean, an essential ingredient in the production of poultry feed.

He declared that scarcity of egg, chicken and other livestock are imminent due to unavailability and increase in the cost of maize and soya beans, which are important for livestock feed production.

FIPAN, called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene and release grains from the nation’s reserve to alleviate their plights.
The association also expressed the fear of increased unemployment if the industry folds up, noting that it contributes about forty five percent of the nation’s labour force.

While recommending ways to mitigate the impending food crisis, Isindinaso said FIPAN is demanding the immediate stoppage of exportation of Soya bean seed and intervention on the importation of maize for livestock feeds.

He urged the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Abubakar Kyari, to buckle up for the challenges ahead and tackle food insecurity to guarantee food sufficiency across the country.

“The industry we’ve taken time to build is about to collapse. The cost of eggs and meat is going higher due to current cost of grain, which constitutes 80 percent of the animal feed, and soya, which is 25 percent of the feed. The Agriculture Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is going down because of shortage of raw materials. The country needs 18.5 metric tonnes of grains to meet industry requirement. But there’s shortage of it as we produced 1.7 metric tonnes of soya.

“A short window should be opened to stakeholders to import grains to augment our daily shortage, as well as create long-lasting mechanisms of two to four years to address the challenges we’re facing. We also called on the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, to address this issue urgently by ensuring exportation of soya and maize are reduced. We’re confident the President will listen and heed to our call.

“There should be an urgent release of between 100,000 to 200,000 metric tons of maize and sorghum from the strategic grains reserves.”

“Where the government does not have this volume of grains, a short window should be created for the importation of maize now and indeed kept as a mechanism to cushion shortages whenever they occur in future as the projection for 2023 grains harvest is even worse,” Isindinaso said