GPP initiate moves to make local poultry industry competitive
The Ghana Poultry Project (GPP) has initiated moves to ensure that locally produced broilers are managed in an efficient manner to make them very competitive with imported chicken.
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The move includes the institution of a series of practical lessons for farmers to help them cut down cost of production, increase production and produce quality broilers that are competitive to imported chicken.
Dr Kwaku Adomako of the Department of Animal Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who made this known said feed cost for instance constituted over 80 per cent of the total cost of producing birds, coupled with high cost of other inputs.
He said to be competitive, farmers needed to use methods that would help cut down cost of production.
As part of the new move, three farms have been earmarked by the GPP for financial support from the United States Department of Agriculture.
They are serving as pilot to promote the adoption of modern poultry production practices in other farms.
This was made known during a visit to two of the demonstration farms within the Ashanti Region.
Over 30 farmers, poultry experts from the KNUST, University of Ghana and regulators from the Veterinary Agency together with GPP experts visited the two farms.
The three demonstration farms are each being supplied with 360 day old chicks from local hatchery coupled with feed from local manufacturers and being assisted to improvise pens in a standard form.
The demonstration farms are also being assisted to institute measures to prevent the spread of diseases, encourage birds to increase intake of food and water with reduced waste so as to help make them ready for consumption within seven weeks.
During the visit to the farms, the Value Chain Leader of the Ghana Poultry Project (GPP), Mr Kweku B. Tuoho, told Graphic Online that the poultry industry in the country was holding the key to increased supply of chicken for the local market so as to help save the nation huge sums of foreign exchange in the importation of chicken.
Consequently, he urged poultry farmers taking part in the GPP to take the practical lessons seriously so that they could help cut down cost of production, increase productions and produce quality broilers to hike their competitiveness with imports and increase profitability.
Mr Tuoho noted that under the project, GPP would also ensure that the day old chick were produced under best conditions to help reduce mortality as well as help farmers increase their productivity at a lower cost.
Local poultry production has reduced over the years due to competition from imported products, high production cost, especially feed and low productivity among others.
Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN indicate that Ghana’s broiler production fell from nearly 60 per cent of all poultry product consumed in Ghana in year 2000 to 20 per cent in 2011.
At the same time, imports have increased from 13,900 metric tonnes to over 155,000 metric tonnes, representing more than a 1,000 per cent increase.
In 2013, the Global Agricultural Information Network estimated that the 2012 domestic share of the broiler meat was 10 per cent of national consumption.
