The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) have said that high cost of feeds is forcing its members out of job, The Informant247 Nigeria News reports.
The association lamented the that rising cost of consumables was dwindling their profit and making many farmers to quit the business.
The Secretary of the Plateau chapter of PAN, Mrs Nanji Gambo, disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday in Jos.
Gambo said that PAN had noticed a decrease in its membership due to high cost of feeds lately which is making the situation unprofitable for farmers.
“This farmers could not bear the high cost of feed and so they crashed out of their businesses,” said Gambo.
She said that the association had formed several platforms to talk with farmers to encourage them to wait patiently for government intervention.
The scribe added that the association had encouraged farmers to downsize to work within their capacity in order to break even for now.
Gambo said the high cost of input is a major set back for poultry farmers and urged government to allow some stakeholders to import maize and soya beans to reduce pressure on local production that are inadequate.
It was also gathered that some poultry farmers who had left the business said they could not break even.
Mrs Lucy Agada, a farmer, said she had to quit to look for something else to do as the cost of feeding her birds became a huge problem.
Another farmer, Mr John Oche, said that he had to sell off his entire poultry farm to look for an alternative business.
Mr Ike Igwe, a member, said he usually sold his birds out before they got matured to full table size to reduce cost.
On his part, Mr Bola Kehinde, a miller, said that the price of maize had skyrocketed as a result of insecurity and border closures.
The poultry farmers, however, urged the government to encourage and surge local production of maize and soya, which are major ingredients for feed production.
The Root
In Nigeria, generally, the level of insecurity has further aggravated the price of maize which is one of the major ingredients in poultry feeds.
As at today, the price of new maize is as high as N150,000 – N160,000 per metric ton, this is even with the high mixture content of 15 to 17% and in some area it is N170,000.
It’s never been witness like this at harvest period. And the price is not showing any signs of abating, the same with soya beans.
It is estimated that poultry farmers need about 4.5 million metric tons of maize annually to meet their demand.
Adding that, over 20 billion pieces of eggs has been produced in Nigeria since the beginning of the year which makes the country the number one egg producing nation in Africa but one of the lowest egg consuming countries per person per annum.