Dr Nurah Gyiele, a Minister of State in-charge of livestock, gave the advice when he delivered a keynote address at a durbar to mark this year's World Egg Day (WED) celebration at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Dormaa Central Municipality of Brong-Ahafo Region.

The event jointly organised by the Municipal Directorate of Agriculture and the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF), was designed to help raise awareness of the benefit of eggs consumption to boost consumption and to dispel negative misconceptions and myths about eggs.

It was attended by traditional rulers, heads of departments and institutions, poultry farmers, egg sellers, caterers and other stakeholders in the poultry industry and financially supported by the United States Department of Agriculture together with its local subsidiary partner AMPLIFIES and the Ghana Poultry Project.

He said Ghana currently was deficient in meeting its "meat, egg and milk requirement”, stressing that presently consumption average of 225,000 metric tonnes of meat was supposed to be consumed annually but the country produces only 30 per cent of that.

 Dr. Gyiele added that by estimation Ghana's annual per capita intake of meat is 12 to 14 Kilogrammes (kgs), while the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) recommendation is 39 kgs for developing countries and 80 kgs for developed countries.

 He stated that increasing local consumption of eggs in the country was the way forward in ensuring self-sufficiency in eggs production and consumption which was likely to create employment and income generating opportunities for the people, especially the youth.

 Dr Gyiele called for more similar celebrations as often as possible and not to wait until the worldwide celebration of WED.  Mr. Drissah Ouattara, the Dormaa Central Municipal Chief Executive, appealed to government to focus much attention also on the poultry sector, just like her flagship agriculture intervention programme, the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs).

 He recalled that last year severe challenges from the outbreak of diseases hit the poultry industry and that revealed the inadequate financial resources of farmers to effectively deal with the situation.

 Mr. Ouattara therefore appealed to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to support the poultry sector, despite the meagre resources to improve foreign exchange earnings for the nation.

 Mr. Tim Agandah, a Nutritionist at the Dormaa Municipal Health Directorate, said although egg had high cholesterol level, there was still the urgent need to promote the consumption of eggs because it had minimal impact in blood cholesterol.

 He noted that there was unfortunately lots of misconception about the consumption of eggs, saying efforts must be made to reverse that trend because of its nutritional benefits. Mr. Victor Oppong Agyei, the Chairman of the GNAPF, said this year's celebration was the fifth in a row and the first time at Dormaa-Ahenkro, the poultry hub of Ghana.