Before this year’s Christmas celebrations, the prices of chicken and poultry products has gone up.
Victor Oppong Adjei, who is the president of the Ghana Poultry Farmers Association, said this at the 48th Annual Meeting on December 8 in Kumasi.
He said that the cost of production this year has gone up sharply and has been inconsistent, which is why the prices of chicken and other poultry products need to be changed.
He said that the rising costs of making chicken were putting their businesses on the verge of failing.
“Before the Christmas celebrations, people should expect to pay at least 70gh for a brown chicken (a spent layer). The price of a white chicken will depend on its size and weight. This is because the cost of making the birds has gone up,” Mr Oppong said.
“The main things used to make poultry are corn, wheat bran, and soybeans, but the prices of these things have gone up a lot in the last few months. At the beginning of this year, the price of 50kg of maize went from 65gh to 180gh, but now it costs 250gh.
The price of 25kg of wheat bran, which used to be 20gh, is now 85gh, while the price of 50kg of soya has skyrocketed from 150gh to 600gh.
A ton of feed used to cost 1,500gh, but now it costs 6,700gh. The high cost of production has caused some of our members to have mental problems, get sick, and even die.
Between 70% and 80% of our members have shut down their poultry farms because of this,” he lamented.
He said that the Agriculture Ministry needs to change its policies so that food prices are affordable and the country doesn’t run out of food.
“We can make food that is cheap and healthy for everyone, but the Ministry of Agriculture needs to put in place the right policies to lower the high cost of production. Food security isn’t just about having food available; it’s also about how healthy the food is, how much it costs, and how many different kinds there are.
So, he suggested that an emergency fund be set up to fight the bird flu pandemic and that a Ministry of Livestock and Poultry be set up to deal with the needs and complaints of the poultry industry.
“More than a million jobs can only be made without raising animals. The poultry industry in the country has the potential to hire more people, so there is a need to think about making a Ministry of Livestock and Poultry.
Bird flu and other pandemics have a big effect on the poultry industry, so he said, “It’s important to set up a contingency fund so that farmers who lose money because of pandemics can get paid on time.”
Dr Cyril Quist, President of the Ghana Veterinary Medical Association, has asked the government to keep fighting galamsey because it is a threat to both animals and people.
“The loss of farmland makes it harder for herbivores and omnivores to get food, and the use of poisonous chemicals in galamsey pollutes the water that animals drink. We wrote down that some pigs in a galamsey community died after drinking from a dirty water source, he said.
