The Vice Dean of the School of Agriculture at the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Julius Hagan has called on government to invest in resources to improve the nation’s poultry industry.
He notes that the poultry sector, like other agricultural sectors, significantly contributes to the nation’s development, hence, it is critical that government pays attention to the sector.
This he notes is to ensure the nation reaps its benefits from the poultry industry.
Prof. Hagan, on ATL FM’s ATLANTIC WAVE, made this remark due to recent challenges confronting the poultry sector, especially in the production of broilers in the country.
He indicated that the industry is on the verge of collapsing due to issues such as high feed costs, and high cost of birds’ vaccination among others.
He believes these have contributed to the high cost of poultry, leading many consumers to develop a preference for imported poultry over local ones.
“The problem is that locally produced chicken is more expensive as compared to the imported one. And it is expensive because the cost of input especially the feed is very high so farmers are not even able to break even.” He added.
He, therefore, underscored the need for government to develop policies to address these issues and revive the sector.
He said “what the government can do is to immediately reduce some taxes on some of the ingredients used in the feed preparation especially wheat brown, yellow maize, soybeans. These ingredients are normally imported so if there can be a waiver on taxes so that farmers can afford.” He said.
He said government can also gradually reduce importation and encourage politicians and businessmen to go into production.
He emphasized saying “if they are into production, they will want to protect their business locally and in doing that they will find every means in terms of policy and other things that will protect the local industry”
To ensure the growth of the poultry sector, Prof. Hagan further urged farmers to execute their tasks efficiently and continuously get trained and retrained to work effectively.
He also admonished the public to strive to do their bit by making sure that they consume domestic poultry.
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Source: Emmanuella Ama Gyamfi/ATLFMNEWS
