The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), South West Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the governors from the South-West to save the poultry subsector from total collapse.
Speaking on behalf of the Association yesterday, in Ibadan, the PAN Chairman, South-West Zone, Rev Gideon Oluleye, stated that the challenges facing the association are enormous while stating that the issue of naira redesign dealt a major blow to the viability of the sector that farmers have not recovered from.
He further stated that the removal of fuel subsidy has caused a galloping increase in the cost of inputs in the subsector, which has made it worse for farmers in the country to operate. He said: “Recently some maize were allocated to farmers by CBN and the commodity exchange, as part of intervention to bring down the soaring prices of maize in the market. About 40,000 metric tons were allocated at N220, 000 and N225, 000 per ton to farmers, while the farmers officials were still trying to negotiate a reduction in the price per tonnage, which we farmers felt was too high for an intervention programme, that the commodity exchange gave a deadline of two weeks payment to access the maize.
“Only few farmers and stakeholders could meet the deadline and the commodity exchange and CBN cancelled and withdrew the allocation immediately at the expiration of the deadline. A few states like Oyo, Ekiti and others paid at the brink of the deadline, and yet the commodity exchange went ahead to cancel the allocation. All efforts to convince the commodity exchange to renew the allocation at the initial price given, proved abortive.”
