Despite the scarcity of day-old chickens in Akwa Ibom, a multi-million-naira hatchery owned by the state government rots away, Nature News gathered.
The state-owned Akwa Prime Hatchery and Poultry Limited with a 200,000 weekly production capacity remain in ruins.
Speaking to Daily Times correspondent in Uyo on Tuesday, some of the poultry farmers lamented the logistical challenges faced with transporting day-old-chicks from Kaduna, Enugu and Ibadan, while the hatchery in the state inaugurated in 2016 is lying fallow.
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One of the farmers, Mr. Etoro-Obong Inyang, disclosed that poultry farmers in the state had not had it so bad in the last 12 years.
“For the 12 years that I have been in poultry farming, this is the first time in years that poultry farmers have been so harshly affected by economic and non -economic factors. And quite, unfortunately, nobody is available to offer any explanation.
“Farmers have been left at the whims and caprices of owners of the means of production and there doesn’t seem to be any government regulation of the poultry industry. How do you explain a situation where you wake up suddenly and the price of a day-old chick is selling for N600, while a bag of feed goes as high as N6,000.
“And, in a state that government claims to be pursuing agriculture as one of its cardinal programmes. For instance, in 2016, the government said it has constructed a hatchery and the intention according to the government was to ensure the availability of day-old chicks at affordable prices to farmers.
“But unfortunately, that effort has not yielded any tangible result. Farmers are still getting their day-old chicks from Ibadan, Kaduna, and Enugu. So, the question now is where is the hatchery?
“One would have expected that farmers would be buying day-old chicks at low prices, but from all indications, the acclaimed hatchery is a ruse,” Inyang said.
Another farmer, Mrs. Eka Prince Ukpong, lamented the number of casualties she recorded when she ordered day-old-chicks from Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
According to her, she was excited just like other farmers about the idea of establishing a hatchery in the state, but such hopes have been dashed as there are no chicks produced several years after the commissioning of the facility by the state government.
Managing Director of the poultry company, Dr. Samuel Yakubu, had pledged to meet public demands by raising well over 200,000 broilers and 50,000 laying stock birds.
However, several calls and text messages sent to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Glory Edet, for her reaction on the issue were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
