The National Poultry Farmers Association (NPFA) has called on the government to reduce maize exports saying the situation is denying the local industry of poultry feeds for their birds.

According to the National Chair of the Association, Mr Victor Oppong Adjei, by reducing export to neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Togo, there would be enough feed for poultry farmers to purchase to meet the protein needs of the country.

Mr Adjei disclosed this during an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Times last week on the issue of shortage of poultry feeds experienced by poultry farmers last year.

According to the Chairman, the government’s flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), was a good initiative which was meant to subsidise maize and other agricultural produce for local farmers and also boost the local poultry and agricultural sector, but noted that it had not been the case since 2020.

“In 2020, we allowed the neighbouring countries to buy all the maize that we produced here. The programme is subsidising the maize production in the country. So far, it has been subsidised with over GH?975 million,” Mr Adjei added.

Meanwhile, he indicated that despite the subsidy, the poultry farmers were not benefitting from it due to export to neighbouring countries.

 On the shortage of poultry feed in the country last year, Mr Adjei noted that the situation had not changed as the prices of maize continued to increase.

“The situation has not really changed. Let’s take for instance in 2020, we were buying the 50 kilogramme bag of maize at GH? 65.00 and  in 2021 it went up to as high as GH?160. When the new harvest started, it dropped to GH?130.00, GH?135.00 and GH?125.00,” he said.

“We have realised that prices are going up again and in that case we cannot still buy within the price that we were buying the maize,” Mr Adjei added.

He, therefore, urged government to intervene in order to save the poultry industry from total collapse as it had the capability of boosting the country’s economy.