PAN Urges Govt to Invest N700 Billion in Poultry Farming

Mr Ayoola Oduntan

The federal government has been urged to invest N700bn on poultry products to discourage importation and assist local production.

Speaking in the NatnudO foods office in Lagos, the National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Mr Ayoola Oduntan, said the fund would be used to subsidise farm implements, seeds, granting of soft loans at low interest and encourage local farmers to produce maize and soya for feeds.

Oduntan, who described poultry industry as a business capable of generating N1trn, insisted that the government and private investors needed to assist local farmers by subsidising prices of feeds and enforcing the ban on poultry products at the border.

He said that the high cost of production of poultry feeds has led to the increase in prices of eggs and chicken. He said that the prices of soya and maize, the important components of feeds production, had increased with soya's price increasing from N60,000 to one N150,000 and maize increased from one N100,000 to N160,000, per metric tonne.

The PAN president said that the Nigeria poultry show, themed: "Sustaining the poultry industry in an economic recession," would be held at the DLK events centre in Abeokuta between November 29 and 30 2016, with exhibitors expected from Nigeria and other countries.