Poultry farmers appeal for financial support from Kaduna

Members of the Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN), Kaduna State chapter, have asked the Kaduna State Government to come to their rescue by extending credit facilities that will aid the expansion of their operations in a bid to meet increasing market demand.


Adeniyi Ibrahim, Secretary to PAN in Kaduna, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recently, after a meeting of the State Core Delivery Team (CDT) of Agriculture, organised by Synergos Nigeria in Kaduna.

According to him, the state can replicate the CBN Rice Anchor Borrowers’ Programme for poultry farmers to enable them fill the huge gap in the supply of poultry products in the state.

He said members of the association are willing to cash in on the ban placed on importation of poultry products and expand their existing level of production, but more than 2,000 of them require financial support to do that.

Ibrahim said, “Currently members of the association supply nearly 50,000 crates of eggs weekly, with 20,000 birds which is grossly inadequate to meet the increasing market demand.”

He also identified shortage of power supply as another challenge, as it limits their ability to service a large clientele. The secretary called for partnership with private investors to establish a one-stop-shop that will enable farmers preserve frozen chicken and control supply. Such an arrangement would help farmers “to maintain the six circle of production in a year under stable price”, he said.

Synergos Field manager, Victor Adejoh said the meeting was to mobilise relevant MDAs and farmers to form cooperative groups, for easy access to public and private investments. Adejoh said poultry farmers’ cooperative groups can easily key into programmes such as the school feeding programme.

“The huge off-take of eggs to the school feeding programme would make the business more profitable as there is steady market. The volume of supply of livestock feed would also increase, thereby crashing the feed price,” Adejoh said.

NAN reports that the NGO is partnering with state actors to address challenges of low agricultural productivity, climate change, and making agriculture a social service instead of a business.

NAN

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