Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture, Mr. Eric Opoku, has lamented that Ghana’s poultry industry is in crisis and needs urgent attention.
He told the Appointments Committee on Monday, January 20, 2025, that it would be prudent to address the challenges in order to ensure food security and drive economic growth.
The nominee posited that the poultry industry is currently facing significant difficulties, including a substantial gap between demand and supply.
He assured the committee that the Mahama-led administration will roll out an initiative to help address these challenges.
He was confident that the solution will help address the gap between the supply of poultry products and the increasing consumer demand.
He also mentioned the high cost of poultry feed as a major impediment to the sector’s growth, stating that his ministry will implement measures to address the production of affordable poultry feed as part of efforts to reduce the burden on farmers and address the crisis.
“To revamp the poultry sector, we have outlined a program in our manifesto called the ‘Poultry Farm to the Table Programme.’ Under this initiative, we aim to collaborate with poultry farmers’ associations, providing them with the necessary financial resources to expand their businesses and increase production,” Opoku stated.
He also underscored the need to make agriculture appealing to young Ghanaians, saying, “We want to make agriculture attractive to the youth and to everyone in this country.”
He announced that the new government will introduce a government-led initiative to acquire land from landowners, prepare it for agricultural purposes, and hand it over to farmers.
“We intend to acquire the land, prepare it for agricultural purposes, and then hand it over to prospective investors so that we can increase production and drive our nation towards food sufficiency,” he added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
