May 22, 2015 : Anna Okon
Poultry Farm
Poultry
farmers in Nigeria have said that the industry lost a total of 1.4
million birds to avian flu which affected 18 states in the first quarter
of 2015.
The farmers revealed this during the
third edition of the Poultry Summit organised by the Poultry Association
of Nigeria in Lagos recently.
According to the association, the
outbreak of the epidemic started manifesting at the end of 2014 but was
fully confirmed in January 2015.
Speaking
during the summit themed, ‘Change, repositioning the poultry industry
for greater demand’ the National President, PAN, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan,
said the industry was attacked by multiple challenges ranging from the
avian influenza to insecurity in the North East which affected the
marketing of the farmers’ products, the devaluation of the naira which
affected the cost of input and persistent egg and chicken glut which
resulted in low price of chicken.
He added that the situation was made worse by unavailability of soybeans and groundnut.
He added, “This coupled with heat
stress, non-availability of funds, inadequate infrastructure such as
power supply and bad roads, multiple taxation and many more.”
The summit which took place in Lagos saw practitioners meeting in separate groups to discuss issues affecting the industry.
According to the PAN President, all the
issues will be harmonised into a working document for the poultry
industry in 2015 and will form the basis of the association’s
presentation to the incoming government.
He added that the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission had agreed to implement the agriculture and
agro-based industry tariff which gives up to 50 per cent discount on the
cost of electricity to agricultural and poultry organisations.
He remarked that it took the association
two years to achieve that and asked members to go to their nearest
distribution companies, identify themselves and collect the reviewed
tariff.
The syndicate groups included finance
which discussed bank and interest rates, foreign exchange and Small and
Medium Enterprises, standard and best practices in poultry business, raw
materials and tariff, school feeding programme and marketing and
consumers’ sensitisation.
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