The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) yesterday urged the Federal Government to compensate its members for the losses they suffered to bird flu.
The group also said the nation’s poultry industry provides over 25 million direct and indirect jobs, with potential to generate much more if well-funded and supported by governments.
Its Southwest Chairman, Gideon Oluleye, who disclosed this at the 10th edition of Poultry Show in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, urged all levels of government, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions to increase funding to the poultry industry.
The theme of this year’s Nigeria Poultry Show which was ‘Sustaining the Nigerian Poultry Industry Amid Global Economic Crisis’ drew participants including ministries of agriculture from the Southwest states.
Oluleye urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue of poultry farmers who were affected by Avian Influenza in recent years to enable them to bounce back on their feet financially and productively.
He lamented that poultry farmers lost over 200,000 birds to the flu in the year, which he said eroded the fortunes of poultry farmers.
He said: “The poultry industry is a subsector of the Nigerian economy that provides employment to over 25 million people both direct and indirect employment. As a result of this, we are urging the Nigeria government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and other levels of government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to give more funding to the sector, as the sector can generate huge employment opportunities for the jobless youths and earn foreign exchange for the country.
“Other reasons why the government must fund this sector the more are the current built-in inflation within the economy that has pushed up the cost of inputs, climate change, dwindling economy, internal security and Ukraine-Russian war which has further taken its toll in negatively impacting the poultry subsector of the country.
”We need some form of compensation from the Federal Government for our farmers who lost their farms to the outbreak of bird flu during the year.
“Many of our members lost their birds and their means of livelihood following the outbreak of bird flu. Millions of naira were also lost to the outbreak.
“We recorded huge losses to the bird flu that ravaged the country this year. We are calling on the Federal government to please compensate our members who were affected by this unfortunate incident for the survival of the poultry industry.”
Also speaking, Idowu Asenuga, Chairman, PAN, Ogun State, lamented what he described as massive decline in productivity and profit margin in the industry due to soaring cost of energy, devaluation of naira, spike in interest rates and cost – push inflation among other challenges.
He appealed to the governments and other stakeholders to support the sector with funds, infrastructure and adequate security to keep the operators’ hope and to ensure that Nigerians have access to quality eggs and chicken in order to meet the ever increasing national protein requirements.