During a poultry forum in Accra farmers blamed governments, both past and present for letting the poultry industry down, Ghana Business News reports.
During a debate on the topic “Is Importing Chicken Good for Ghana?” farmers argued that the country seems to be clueless about how to save the industry adding that governments keep repeating policies on poultry whenever a national budget is read.
Angry poultry farmers pointed out that parliament once passed a law to increase taxes on the importation of frozen chicken but that law was never implemented due to pressures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “They are taking us for granted and they seem to be getting away with that,” one poultry farmer said.
“If you listen to the discussions, you can say that there is crisis in the poultry industry,” said Alhaji Akate, the managing director of Akate Farms that has over 600,000 birds including hens and chickens.
“In the olden days, we used to have something like an agricultural loan and the interest rate was good but its not there any more and the challenges are increasing,” said Akate whose company is a recipient of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) Best Agro Company Award.
Deputy Minister of Food and Agric in charge of Livestock, Dr. Tia Sugri admitted that the poultry industry has been facing some challenges and that government plans to support farmers to grow more soya in large quantities for the poultry sector. He also hinted at government’s plans to establish a poultry development fund which will boost poultry production in the country to meet demands.
Source: Ghana Business News
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