The South West Zone of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has urged President Bola Tinubu, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Governors in the region to rescue the poultry industry from outright collapse.

The Zonal Chairman of PAN, Gideon Oluleye, who made the appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State, said the challenges facing the industry are enormous, noting that farmers are yet to recover from the effect of naira redesign policy.

Oluleye noted that the removal of the fuel subsidy has caused a galloping increase in the cost of inputs in the subsector, which has worsened the plight of farmers in the country.

“Recently some maize was allocated to farmers by the CBN and the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) market, as part of interventions to bring down the soaring prices of maize in the market. About 40,000 metric tons was allocated at the rate of N220, 000 and N225, 000 per ton to farmers, while the farmers were still trying to negotiate a reduction in the price per tonnage, which they perceive as too high for an intervention programme, the two weeks payment deadline issued by the NCX lapsed.

“Only few farmers and stakeholders could meet the deadline. At the expiration of the deadline, the NCX and the CBN withdrew the allocation. A few states like Oyo, Ekiti and others paid at the brink of the deadline, yet the commodity exchange market went ahead to cancel the allocations. All efforts to convince them to renew the allocation at the initial price given, proved abortive,” he said.

The PAN Chairman disclosed that the marketing strategy to hoard the maize had caused unnecessary scarcity, which had led to high cost of maize in the open market, while revealing that the cost of maize in the Southwest, is currently about N400, 000 – N430, 000 per ton, which is not affordable to farmers.

The chairman lamented that the price of maize, formerly sold between N225, 000 – N230, 000 in the Southwest, now cost about N400, 000 – N430, 000 as a result of hoarding by the NCX.

Gideon, however, advocated for the reduction in the price of soybeans for poultry and livestock sector, while calling on the Federal Government and the CBN to subsidise and grant a short importation for maize and soya beans to bridge the shortfall currently experienced to preserve the sector from collapsing.

“We are appealing to the Federal Government to grant access to capital through the CBN for long term lending and grants to the sector and create structures that will facilitate sales of our products.”

Also speaking, the PAN Chairman, Oyo State chapter, Elder Oyekunle Omidokun, revealed that the Agric sector has contributed an average of 24 per cent to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has provided job opportunities for millions of Nigerians, while urging the Federal Government to intervene and save the sector from imminent collapse.

He lamented that the high cost of Diesel, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and foreign exchange scarcity has affected the cost of vaccines, veterinary drugs, while urging government to release 20,000 metric tonnes of maize to PAN at discounted rate in order to mitigate the challenges facing the industry.

Oyekunle urged the CBN and the NCX to urgently release the maize allocated to the poultry industry.

Mom007:

Bro, lemme shock you, even with those prices, their margin of gain is ridiculously low. Them no dey gain anything. That business is a suffer head business and that's just the truth. I think the solution to a lot of Nigeria's problem is that people should just go and farm. Everyone should keep a garden. This our dependence on buy, buy, buy all the time is killing us. Government cannot fix everything. Even if they count raw cash and give everyone, it will end in inflation with plenty money chasing few goods.

tejumorelar:
We need to shutdown this country called Nigeria as a matter of urgency