Poultry Farmers Raise alarm over looming shortage of poultry meat in Ghana

Ghana should expect an acute possible shortage of poultry meat by the end of the year, according to the 2018 Best Farmer for Atwima Mponua District who doubles as the Founder and Leader for God Of Fire Ministry of the Ashanti Region, Nana Sefa popularly knows as Ogya Nyame.

Speaking in an interview with the Soireenews via telephone call on Monday, August 9, 2021, the man of God stated that the ongoing increment of feedings for the poultry birds in the wake of the world novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is not being tackled well by the government.

According to him, if government do not intervene in the ongoing increment of the feeding of the birds to make up for practical steps of tackling the development in the next three weeks, many poultry farms would fold up.

He disclosed that they currently spent over GH¢40,000.00 to feed 1000 birds, the development, he lamented was affecting the poultry production in the area.

He lamented that the wake of the world novel coronavirus pandemic is adversely affecting the commercial rearing of birds resulting in the death of the poultry industry in the country.

He further bemoaned the current poor nature of the poultry industry, saying that the intervention by the government of Planting For Food and Rearing of Animals has not impacted positively on their activities.

"I won't declare that many farmers have stopped the industry as there has been agronomically increase of poultry products as well as persistent importation of frozen chicken and if pragmatic measures are not put in place the poultry sector will finally collapse," Nana Sefa stressed.

He, therefore, appealed to the government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Owusu Affriyie Akoto to mediate something fast to avoid the sector from collapse which eventually would have an effect on the economy.

Checks by Soireenews have revealed that more than 10,000 poultry birds died from the avian flu outbreak reported in Ghana.

Patrick Abekeh, director of the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), said a total of seven farms reported the outbreak from the Greater Accra, Volta, and Central Regions.

“From these seven farms, 5,811 birds died naturally, and the veterinary services department destroyed 4,500 birds. So in all 10,311 birds have so far been lost to the outbreak,” Abekeh told.

The destruction of the remaining birds on each of the affected farms, the official explained, was necessary to prevent the spread of the flu to other farms.

“Because of its zoonotic nature, bird flu can affect human beings, including farmhands and all those who come into contact with infected birds,” the official said.

He said the authorities would focus on containing and stamping out the disease and fortunately no human infections had yet been recorded. 

The 100,000 hectares of farmlands across the country have been badly affected by the invasion.

Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu