The Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and other development organizations have been urged by the Poultry Association of Nigeria, South-West Zone, to prevent the industry’s complete collapse, Entrepreneurng report.
Rev. Oluleye Gideon, the South-West chairman, appealed during a joint news conference in Ibadan, claiming that other government initiatives and the recent redesign of the naira hurt his members.
Gideon claimed that the CBN’s policies had caused the farmers and their investor’s immense misery and that they had lost several billions of naira as a result.
The chairman claimed that despite CBN’s efforts to make things worse for farmers by redesigning the naira, the negative effects of COVID-19 on them and their farms have not yet subsided.
Although the farmers and I are not opposed to this policy, its timing and method of execution have caused us great suffering.
If the government does not immediately assist poultry farmers, many farms have failed, are operating at half capacity, and will soon close, according to him.
According to Gideon, the economy’s subsector, which he claimed has been providing roughly 6% of the GDP, has to be saved from utter collapse by the government and developmental organizations.
The PAN chairman further encouraged the government to step up and get involved in the country’s economy, calling on the CBN and all other institutions to do the same.
“They should assist in clearing up the estimated 15 to 20 million crates of unsold chicken and eggs in the market at this time to lessen the farmers’ losses.
“These things ought to be used to feed the residents of IDP camps and all of our prisons around the nation.”
“Some could also be used in government hospitals where meals are served as eggs to help for quick recovery and in building up the immunity of the sick patients,” the man added.”
As soon as possible, according to Gideon, the government should revive the school feeding program. He added that the program’s main ingredients are eggs and chicken meat. To increase farmers’ yields, he asked the Federal and State Governments to subsidize important inputs.
We also want to utilize this opportunity to ask organizations like IFAD, NG-Cares, the World Bank, and the Private Financial Advisory Network (PFAN) to support poultry producers in Nigeria, particularly in the South-West zone.
According to Gideon, the majority of the farmers who were operating on loans were unable to repay them as a result of the crisis.
“We want the CBN and the Federal Government to contribute to partially offsetting the loan’s cost and, in some situations, completely canceling the loan.”
“The farmers will be able to recover as a result, preventing the sector’s collapse. Let the government establish a committee to start collecting all unsold chicken and eggs, he urged.”
He claims that the situation is so dire that one farmer currently has 100,000 unsold crates of eggs on his farm, which have a market value of more than N200 million, Gideon claimed.
Idowu Asenuga, the PAN state chairman for Ogun, pleaded with the government to act promptly to save the industry from its dilemma.
Finally, to appeal to the presidency and see how they might rapidly intervene, we went to the minister of agriculture, said Asenuga.
Source: PunchÂ
