Ghana - Poultry Consultant Sends SOS to Govt. to salvage poultry industry

Dr. George G. Anku, a renowned poultry consultant in Kumasi, has called on the government to take steps to salvage the poultry industry, which he said was the second largest area of investment after petroleum processing, from collapsing. He appealed to the government to reconsider its decision to cut the importation of poultry and poultry products from 40% to 20%. The consultant also urged the government to salvage the industry by importing grade 'B' yellow maize to feed the farms before the industry dies. Anku observed that not even the mining or timber industry needed much attention as the poultry industry does presently, and suggested that maize growers should be given incentives to enhance egg production. Currently, the poultry industry inclusively employs 75% of the Ghanaian population in the areas of processing, nutrition, health, product and by-products as well as vending at food joints, chop bars and that should spur the government on to give every assistance to sustain the industry. He noted that Ghanaians have depended on rain-fed agriculture for such a long time that seasonal changes were now affecting crop production. He said until the government subsidized poultry products, as it had been doing for cocoa farmers, the poultry industry was bound to collapse. Dr. Anku, who is also the Vice President of the World Poultry Science Association (WPSA), expressed his dissatisfaction at the inability of the President to follow the steps taken by his Nigerian counterpart, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has subsidized poultry inputs to the relief of Nigerian farmers in order to encourage them produce more. Quoting President Obasanjo, during a meeting of WPSA at Otta in the Ogun State of Nigeria recently, Anku said if the black man cannot manufacture aeroplanes and computers, he is capable of raising chicken and should therefore not sit down for the white man to take that from him. Dr. Anku said the egg knows no taboo since Christians, Muslims and the fetish priests eat egg, and that chicken production knows no holiday.