The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos Chapter, said that the country may likely witness a 10 per cent job loss if there were no interventions in the problems facing the poultry sector.
PAN’s Lagos chapter chairman, Mr Godwin Egbebe, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
“If the growing price of poultry feed and a host of other challenges in the sector continue, 10 per cent of Nigerians may lose their jobs as poultry farmers continue to shut down across the country.
“The situation on ground is that the poultry sector is actually at risk because of the growing prices of poultry feed.
“The situation has made a lot of poultry farmers to close shop because of the problems in the sector.
“In so many of our platforms, you see farmers advertising to sell their cages off because they want to close their businesses.
“The government needs to take the problems in the poultry sector very serious, it is like they are not taking us serious the way they take the problems in the cattle sector,” he said.
“The kind of employment that the poultry sector gives to Nigeria, the cattle sector cannot give such but the government is not taking the poultry sector serious.
“We want the government to do all they can to intervene in the sector, so that these poultry farms do not become grounded.
“This is because if they do, about 10 per cent of the population will lose their jobs.
“The Nigerian poultry sector accounts for 10 per cent of employment in the country especially the youths that are in the sector. If they are out of jobs what do we expect them to do?,” he said.
The chairman said that with the growing price of poultry feed, farmers could not continue increasing the prices of poultry produce because of the reduction in demand.
He noted that despite increase in price, the sector is currently witnessing egg glut with farmers running at a loss.
“With the increasing price of poultry feed, we are at risk because if the price keeps increasing, we cannot keep increasing the prices of poultry produce because people will not buy and then, we will be at a loss.
“The price of poultry produce cannot exceed a certain level because most people are barely managing to buy.
“Even with the current high price of poultry feed, we are currently experiencing a egg glut despite we are increasing our prices in commensurate with cost of production.
“We also want to appeal to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development (FMARD) to come to our aid in the poultry sector. We will write to them shortly about it.,” the chairman said. (NAN)