Poultry farmers groan as feed prices soar

Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) on Friday called for urgent intervention of President Bola Tinubu’s administration on the astronomical hike in cost of poultry feeds.

The association said that failure of government to take urgent action to mitigate this challenge would lead to total collapse of poultry sub-sector of the economy.

Mr Hakeem Musa, Secretary of PAN, FCT Chapter, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Musa, Chief Executive Officer of Mushak Agro Consult, frowned at the perpetual hike in price of feed adding that government could intervene by giving grants to farmers in order to remain in business.

Citing example with layers mash, Musa said a 25kg bag of feed as at November ending was N8,000 plus, first week of last month rose to N9,100 second week N9,350 third week N9,550 .

He, however, said that at the moment the same bag of feed had risen to N10,950.

“Nobody knows whether this increment is going to stop anytime soon because November, December is supposed to be time for surplus of maize and if it is this expensive, what are we expecting from February and March.

“We are praying that President Tinubu’s administration will focus attention on the industry and also confident and hopeful that intervention will be given to poultry sub-sector of the country.

“The basic intervention we need is grant not loans to sustain the industry because over time farmers have lost a lot of money, so if they are taking loan now they will not be able to pay back,” he said.

The secretary attributed the high cost of feed to inadequate maize and soybeans being major ingredients for feed production as well as ban on maize importation.

According to him, the hike in feed has negatively impacted on the farmers as a lot of farms have shut down while some other farmers have also reduced the capacity of their birds drastically.