Ibrahim said this at the opening ceremony of 8th edition of the Nigeria Poultry Show tagged “Abeokuta 2018” with the theme: “Repositioning the Nigeria Poultry: Path to Economic Recovery and Growth Plan”, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, last Tuesday.
He appreciated the federal government for the support given to the industry so far for it to attain its present status, however, insisted that more assistance from the government would further help the industry in boosting local and foreign investments.
The PAN president explained further that the nation’s poultry industry had the capacity to be the export hub of poultry products to the West Africa sub-region.
“The Nigeria economy is on the path to more growth, and one way that the government can have a more win-win situation is by focusing attention on the poultry industry.
“The poultry industry as the main supplier of cheap protein source of egg and meat cut across all the segment and objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The industry as a complete private sector driven economy have the potential to drive the Nigeria economy both locally and internationally,”he added.
He advised poultry farmers to protect their farms investments against any outbreak of poultry diseases, especially Avian Influenza (AI), since the FG had resolved not to compensate farmers for any outbreak of AI and other major poultry disesases.
The vice president of PAN, South West, Olabode Adetoyi, called on the federal government to secure the nation’s borders against importation of poultry products so as to encourage local meat consumption.
He further said Nigeria’s poultry industry lead in egg production in Africa with the production of 1 billion eggs annually.
Adetoyi identified lack of access to agricultural lending with the focus of increasing farmers profits, multiple taxation and multiple regulations, smuggling of frozen products, raw materials, sub-standard inputs as some of the challenges confronting the industry.
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