Drought in northern part of the country, is impacting the poultry industry as feed producers cannot get enough grains to process. The situation is worsening the plight of poultry farmers, as some claim they have existing feed stock to last them for just a month.
Poultry feed has for a long time been the challenge to most poultry farmers in Ghana. Poultry feed primarily contains maize and soy beans, but getting the feed for the birds continue to be a major problem.
In 2023, the importation of poultry products was valued at approximately GH¢868.8 million, accounting for about 7.7% of total imports. Recent data shows that by 2020, the poultry industry contributed roughly 16% to Ghana’s total livestock production.
The sector recorded an annual production of over 128,000 metric tons of poultry meat and nearly 2.3 billion eggs. However, the national demand for poultry meat alone is about 400,000 metric tons, with local production falling short at just about 57,871 metric tons.
Gifty Rodor, Chairperson of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana, has warned that rising feed costs due to the drought could lead to catastrophic losses in the poultry sector. She said this in an interview with Joy Business.
“As I speak, most poultry farmers do not even have maize to process into poultry feed. The search we have done shows that approximately by the end of September, farmers may not get feed to feed their poultry,” she stated. She also emphasized that farmers are already grappling with high feed prices due to the increasing cost of grains.
“Five years ago we faced the same issue. This is the reason why cheap frozen chicken is dumped in Ghana. This is killing the local poultry industry,” she said.
Ms. Rodor called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to urgently assist the farmers, noting that they have already reached out for support.
“We have written a letter to the minister about three weeks ago, informing him about the situation and its potential impact on poultry production. We are begging him to respond to our letter,” she pleaded.
The Minister of Finance in an earlier report stated that an amount of GH¢8 billion is to be allocated to combat the drought and support farmers affected by it.
The decision was commended by the President of the National Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr. Awal Adugwala, who further urged long term solutions to the country’s farming challenges instead of reactive measures, calling on the government to employ comprehensive measures like proper engineering of dams to help the situation.
