Poultry farmers quit due to high cost of feeds

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) have said that high cost of feeds is forcing its members out of job.

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 in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Jos.

Gambo said that PAN had noticed a decline in its membership as a result of the high cost of feeds in recent time as they are operating at loss.

She lamented that they are barely breaking even because of the exorbitant cost of feeds.

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“These 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 setback 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.

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. (NAN)