Women in poultry hail ADB support to the sector; it should cover the entire value chain

THE apex body of the Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC- APEX) has lauded the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB’s) planned investment of GH¢500 million to support the local poultry industry through soft loans.

It hoped that the interest rate on the money pegged at below 10 per cent should materialise such that the youth would also be attracted to go into poultry farming.

“Finance is the major resource needed for production. The youth are looking at the current state of the sector and they are not attracted.

So, we believe that there should be attractive packages for the youth to take up poultry as a profession to create more jobs for them.”

“We welcomed the move by the ADB and we are anxiously waiting for such an opportunity to meet them to discuss the modality,” the President of WIPVaC-APEX, Mrs Victoria Norgbey, said in an interview on June 4, 2020.

She said the decision by the bank to help revive and develop the entire value chain along the sector was a sure way to contribute to ensure a sustainable poultry sector in Ghana.

She noted that currently, 70 per cent of the day-old chicks that farmers in the sector needed to start production were imported while 30 per cent were sourced locally.

She explained that farmers who sold their birds in December and wanted a replacement could not get them because of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to subsequent closure of the borders.

“We need to start supporting breeder houses, the parent sources that will lay the fertile egg for it be hatched here, because if you don’t have the day-old chicks you cannot start production at all,” she said.

Mrs Norgbey said most people in Ghana import the fertile eggs before they hatch so when the borders were closed and the cargo planes attempted to bring the day-old chicks, by the time they got here 80 per cent of the chicks had died.

“So, we are saying that they should apportion percentage of money to develop the entire poultry value chain,” she emphasised.

Govt initiative
She lauded the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative by the government and said it should be expanded so that poultry farmers can get regular supply of maize and soya.

“It should be continued and upscaled to ensure regular supply of our maize and soya which we need for our feed and which represents the input side of the value chain,” she said.

Institutional involvement
Mrs Norgbey said institutions such as the University of Development Studies (UDS), the Veterinary Services Directorate (VSD) should also be supported to develop the vaccines needed on a large scale for use in Ghana.

She said Extension Services must also be resourced to do monitoring especially at the hatcheries to produce quality day-old chicks than what farmers import.

ADB intervention
The Managing Director of the ADB, Dr John Kofi Mensah, on May 20, 2020 said the initiative was in line with the bank’s strategic plan for 2020 to 2022.

He said beneficiary companies would receive between GH¢1.5 million and GH¢9 million.