Poultry farms shutting down, two million actors to lose jobs

Some poultry farms across the country are shutting down due to the high cost of feeding them and the non-availability of the feeds.

Consequently, the farmers are selling their birds in the process.

President of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Michael Nyarko Ampem who confirmed this said the situation is dire and a large number of farmers could lose their jobs as a result of the shutdown.

“The birds are available but they survive on feeds. If the feed is not there it is difficult. The part that is risky is that even if you don’t feed them the eggs production will drop but for you to get the production you have to give them constant feed so you are better off to break even so you sell your birds,” he said.

“It is a combination of factors; Unavailability of maize, the high price of soya, wheat bran and maize so the ability of the farmer to do what they have to do is difficult so you are better off to cut your losses and run away”.

According to him, although the Minister of Agriculture painted a nice picture about our maize production in Ghana, neighbouring countries didn’t have maize so they imported from Ghana, contributing to the shortage.

There is currently over 10,000 poultry farmers in the Greater Accra Region whiles the central region have double the number in Accra. Other regions have even larger numbers and Mr. Ampem said “We could be looking at anything between 1M to 2M people losing their jobs because we look at the production chain”.

He told host of the Sunrise morning show on 3FM, Alfred Ocansey.

As of July 2020 a bag of maize was selling at GHC65.00 for 50kg but now it has shot up to GHC 165.00. Whiles wheat bran has moved from GHC 17.00 for 25kg per bag to GHC 45.00. Meanwhile, soya has also shot up to GHC 200.00 from GHC 120.00.

According to Mr. Ampem, farms are disposing off birds when they haven’t even finished laying.

“When they finish laying you sell them but now we don’t wait because of the situation. The current challenge is that the number of birds that are coming to the market is so much that the live birds’ sellers are not buying”.