GNAPF laments lack of gov’t policy for sustainability of poultry work

The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) is lamenting the government’s failure to implement policies that will ensure a boost and sustainability of poultry production.

According to GNAPF, the current situation being faced by farmers with fertilizer subsidy and high cost of production will lead to a low output in the business operation if government does nothing about it.

Despite the increasing cost of food and concerns over food insecurity in the country, the government has consistently insisted that its policies and interventions such as the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative have been extremely successful.

Food inflation has gone up to 22.4 percent as of March this year from a low of 5.4 percent in May last year.

Importation of maize has not come down even though government reports of an increase in maize production, among other disadvantages the poultry farmers make narration of.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s position on the Food Security Index according to the EIU has fallen from 78th in 2016 to 82nd in 2021.

For some stakeholders, the decline reflects a failure of agricultural policies under the Akufo-Addo Administration.

While the government has consistently touted the progress made in the agriculture sector due to its interventions, issues such as a lack of access to poultry feed, fertilizer, and rising food prices, which is reflected in Ghana’s high food inflation, have got stakeholders in the sector concerned.

Speaking at a stakeholder engagement at Miklin hotel, Chairman of GNAPF said many farms are on the brink of folding-up as a result of the worsening business environment.

He mentioned the unabated influx of frozen chicken, astronomical cost of production – especially prices of inputs, lack of financial support, and elusiveness of modern technologies.

He stated that the current domestic broiler production represents only 5 percent of broiler chicken consumption in the country and should the government walk the talk to boost local production to about 40 percent, about 60 million birds, as promised there will be massive job opportunities and other economic benefits.

He lamented: “An industry that has a huge potential to aid the desired transformation of our economy could soon grind to a halt. Poultry is a key economic element in some jurisdictions like the USA, where it employs about 1.3 million people and generated close to US$469billion in 2014. It’s now crucial for us to change the status quo in this country so as to save the sinking poultry industry.”

Madam Elizabeth Nkrumah, President of Egg Sellers Association on her part also said, the poultry industry is currently at a crossroad following government’s ‘failure’ to fulfil a series of promises: such as implementation of a binding regulatory policy to transform the industry.

She attributed government’s continuous lip-service support to the poultry industry to lack of a binding national framework that offers the needed policy direction.

This, she added, fortifies government’s unenthusiastic spirit in advancing support to the industry.

“We are yet to see government policies that are seeking to ensure that we increase poultry production for 2022 to be able to avert a similar situation in years ahead. The current policy which was implemented before the current planting season was that they’re reducing fertilizer subsidy to 15%. That alone means that farmers will have to cough more money to be able to buy fertilizer and other services for the poultry production. This already points to low output because farmers will have to cut down their acreage for farming because the total cost of production has gone up. This also means that farmers will not be able to apply fertilizer to the quantity that they ought to and that will also mean that the yield will fall. This entire means there will be a low output of poultry production at the end of 2022. The implication of that is that come next year, the food situation will be more serious than it is today.”