October 17, 2022

Nigerian poultry body highlights insecurity, lack of support affecting local egg production

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), an umbrella body of poultry farmers in the country, recently lamented that insecurity, lack of financial support and rural roads in a weak state are hampering increased egg production and limiting outputs.

Additionally, climate change and high cost of inputs are other challenges noted to be hindering poultry production in Nigeria.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the association also called for government intervention and structured loan to address the special needs of farmers.

Chapter chairman Pious Aminu said egg remains important ingredient of nutrition that Nigerians cannot afford to neglect.

"Egg production is one of the vital components of agric sub sector that produce a lot of employment for unemployed youths and women alike and also helps to bridge the gap of protein intake in the country," he said. "The main challenges we're having is the insecurity that have also led to close down of so many farms, especially in FCT and poultry farmers in FCT also want to use this medium to also appeal to relevant authority to help us fix most of our rural roads; this road network also helps most of our farmer to convey their products conveniently from their farm to the markets."

Aminu added: "…we cannot talk about the challenges without mentioning finance which affect almost every farmers in terms of expansion and in terms of setting up their farms and in advance of disease outbreaks… many farms in FCT were being destroyed by (storms)… we have been looking for a way to reach out to the FCT administration to come to the aid of these affected farmers."

- Leadership News