Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), South-West zone, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Governors from the South-West geo-political zone to save the poultry sub-sector from total collapse.
While urging the Federal Government to intervene and save the sector from imminent collapse, it stated that the challenges facing the association are enormous presently.
Speaking on behalf of the association in Ibadan, the PAN Chairman, South-West zone, Gideon Oluleye, said that the issue of naira redesign dealt a major blow on the viability of the sector that farmers have not recovered from. The removal of fuel subsidy, he pointed out, has also caused a galloping increase in the cost of inputs in the sub-sector, making it worse for farmers in the country to operate.
The PAN chairman revealed that the marketing strategy to hoard the maize had caused unnecessary scarcity in the market, which had led to increase in the high cost of maize in the open market, while revealing that the cost of maize in the south west is about N400, 000-N430, 000 per ton, which he said is not affordable to farmers.
He further lamented that the price of maize which was formerly sold for N225, 000 – N230, 000 in the South West, now cost about N400, 000 – N430,000 as a result of hoarding the item by the commodity exchange.
Gideon, however, advocated for the reduction in the price of soybeans for poultry and livestock sector of the country, while calling on the Federal Government and the CBN to subsidise and grant a short importation mechanism for maize and soya beans in order to bridge the shortfall currently being experienced, in order to preserve the sector from collapsing.
Speaking in the same vein, PAN Chairman, Oyo State chapter, Oyekunle Omidokun, revealed that the Agric sector has contributed an average of 24 percent to the National GDP, which has provided job opportunities for millions of Nigerians.
He lamented that the high cost of Diesel, Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), or petrol, and foreign exchange scarcity has affected the cost of vaccines, veterinary drugs, while urging the Federal Government to release 20,000 metric tonnes of maize to PAN at discounted rate in order to mitigate the challenges facing the industry.
Oyekunle further advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) to urgently release the maize allocated to the poultry industry and provide enabling support schemes for the revival of the industry.
