Agriculture
POULTRY farmers in Lagos State have lamented the scarcity of maize and the subsequent hike in price of bird feed.
The farmers lamented the situation in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
They said that the unavailability of maize and the indiscriminate hike in produce price was gradually crippling the local poultry sector.
According to Mr Rasheed Saliu, President, Aiyekoto Farm Estate in Ojo area of the state, the situation has led to the folding up of more than 100 poultry farms in the area.
“For about six months or thereabout the poultry sector has faced scarcity of maize. Initially, it started like a joke but before we realised what was happening the price of maize had risen by over 300 per cent.
“This is alarming, because our cost of production has subsequently increased as maize is about 60 per cent of our total production cost.
“A bag of feed now costs over N10,000 and above as against N4000 to N5000 previously. The fear now is that even the newly harvested maize is quite expensive because of its unavailability.
“It means by the time it becomes dry maize, we will have a worse situation at hand.
“We cannot even increase the cost of eggs now, because customers are not willing to buy above a certain amount due to low purchasing power in our economy.
“Ninety per cent of poultry farmers are now operating at a loss. Over 100 poultry farms that I know of personally have currently shut down,” Saliu told NAN.
He added that the situation was getting more alarming, and wondered how the situation would be by the end of the year.
“The government needs to find a way to intervene in the situation to help the sector. Maize should be released from the strategic reserves.
“They should also stop the illegal smuggling of maize to neighbouring countries,” he said.
On his part, Mr Emmanuel Iregbeyen of the Emiraz Poultry Farms, called for the urgent intervention of the government in the sector.
“The situation with poultry farmers presently is really dismal and we attribute it to the growing cost of maize.
“The scarcity of maize for preparation of feed has really crippled our activities and productivity.
“A ton of maize sold two months ago for about N250,000 but it now sells for about N600,000.
“A pack of feed meal used to sell for between N4000 to N5000 but it now sells for over N10,000 per pack.
“A number of farmers are selling off their birds, especially, the big farmers because of their inability to meet up.
“Those in the system are finding it difficult to cope, more so we cannot increase the price of our produce at will because of lack of patronage.
“ We need the government’s quick intervention in the situation,” Iregbeyen said.
Mr Joel Oduware, a poultry processor, urged the government to clamp down on illegal smuggling of maize to neighbouring countries in order to address the growing scarcity.
“The major problem we are facing in the poultry subsector now is maize, there is shortage of maize.
“We do not have enough maize for our local demand. This is mainly caused by the smuggling of maize to neighbouring countries.
“Maize does not come to the south that much because they smuggle it across the borders.
“The government should help us completely ban the exportation of maize, so that there will be sufficient quantity for use, especially for feed milling and other food processing industry.
“There is maize scarcity because the bulk of the maize produced locally is smuggled out of the country.
“If a ban can be placed on the smuggling of maize, it will help us a lot in the poultry sector.
“The government does not necessarily need to lift the ban on importation of maize, but it should clamp down on smugglers because we produce enough locally.
‘The government should also release grains from the national grain reserve to help local poultry farmers.
“This will help augment what the sector is getting, and subsequently subsidise and regulate the price of feeds,” Oduware said.
According to Mrs Christiana Muyi, a poultry farmer, it has been trying times for poultry farmers, irrespective of their size.
“It has been difficult for us to access maize for feed production. So many of my colleagues are packing up, because of the situation.
“The problem we have is the unavailability of maize, which is the major ingredient in feed production.
“The issue is that we cannot increase the price of our produce. If you increase you will not get buyers and if we cannot get buyers it is a problem.
“This has made a lot of farmers to start downsizing. Even now, the quality of most of our feed has been watered down due to their high cost.
“Due to the scarcity of maize, some feed millers now make use of wheat and chaff meal which does not give us the desired output in production.
“Our layers do not give us the quality of eggs and general produce. If the government can step in to help us it will go a long way to help us with the reopening of the border to import maize,” Muyi said. (NAN)
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August 31, 2023 @ 16:24 GMT|
Tags: Joel Oduware Rasheed Saliu
