Poultry Day marked with renewed commitment to boost local production
The fifth edition of Ghana Poultry Day has been held with the aim of promoting local poultry production, consumption and investment in the sector.
Organised by the Agrihouse Foundation, the event highlighted the urgent need to scale up domestic poultry production, which currently supplies less than 10 per cent of the country’s poultry consumption needs.
Originally launched on July 1, 2021 as the Ghana Chicken Festival to be observed annually, the event has grown into a platform for policymakers, industry players, farmers, agribusinesses, schools and consumers to engage on the challenges and opportunities within the poultry value chain.
The celebration
This year’s celebration was themed: “Investing in the Local Poultry Sector: A means to creating jobs, promoting agritourism and improving food security.”
Key activities that marked the festival included panel discussion with industry players, cooking competition, food sampling, poultry farmers' round-table discussion, public education, exhibitions and fun games.
The Agrihouse Foundation also distributed 5,000 day-old-chicks to the participants to help boost poultry farming in the country and also encourage patronage and consumption of locally produced chicken.
Government’s commitment
At the event, the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, underscored the government’s commitment to revitalising the poultry sector through targeted interventions.
“We are set to distribute over 44 million day-old chicks to farmers across the country.
Additionally, 55,000 households will be empowered with chicks and feed packages. This is the best time to be a poultry farmer in Ghana,” he said.
He called on Ghanaians to start small, even from their backyards and reduce dependency on imported poultry.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, said farmers deserved to be celebrated for their efforts to feed the nation and encouraged the Government to explore opportunities to produce local feed for poultry farmers.
That, she said, would help to reduce foreign reliance and build a sustainable industry.
The National Coordinator, School Feeding Programme, Bright Kwadzo Demorazi, said the government would, this year, support 50 large-scale poultry farmers and 500 small to medium-scale ones under the Feed Ghana Programme.
He said the "Nkuko Nkitinkiti Programme", which would supply day-old chicks to interested Ghanaians, sought to ignite interest in local production of poultry especially within households.
"It will be shared for people who have interest, space and the right environment where the chicks can live safely. We believe that after the sharing, these people will venture into small-scale poultry production,” Mr Demordzi said.
The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Albertha Nana Akyia Akosa, explained that the festival was initiated to promote the consumption and patronage of locally produced poultry to reduce imports and create jobs.
She explained that aside from activities such as the cooking competition and fun games, the event drew the attention of policymakers to the urgent need to relook at the poultry sector.
She said the day was instituted as an avenue to advocate the promotion and investment in the poultry sector, create awareness of the vast job opportunities in the sector for the youth and also push for the feed industry to be expanded or scaled up to reduce the cost of feed, thereby reducing the cost of locally grown poultry.
“The day was introduced to promote the nutritional and medicinal value of locally grown poultry, create more awareness of the vast poultry industry to ensure that the entire sector receives equal attention and investments and promote the consumption of locally grown poultry and eggs,” Ms Akosa added.
