By Godwin Ogar
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha has taken steps to urgently address the shortage of hatch-able eggs in the country threatening future supply for the poultry industry.
Part of the move is to ensure urgent importation of hatch-able eggs as well as preparations of enough hatcheries on ground to provide pullets for operators in the poultry industry.
The decision was taken after a delegation of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, PAN, led by its President, Ichie Sunday Ezeobiora, paid a courtesy visit to the Minister at his office in Abuja.
“In the last one year plus, and like other years before, the poultry industry has continued to play very significant roles in the development of the agricultural economy of the nation,” the PAN President had said.
“It continues to be the most commercialized sub-sector of agriculture in the country, providing the cheapest source of animal protein and employing the highest numbers of people directly and indirectly…
“The supply of pullets for the table egg industry has been a major problem in the last 15 months leading to a situation where farmers cannot get day-old chicks (pullets) from the hatcheries to restock their farms. The situation is getting worse… Farmers now book and fully pay for pullets for over ten years and they are still unable to supply the day-old chicks. This is greatly impacting the later industry negatively as supply/demand friction continues to raise the prices of pullets to abnormal and unaffordable prices at the moment,” the PAN President had complained.
To address this urgent need for the availability of day-old chicks for poultry operators in the country, the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, has formed a committee with the mandate to look into the option of making use of indigenous day-old chicks in Nigeria such as the MoorBeta, the modalities for the importation of eggs to be hatched in the country as well as the competence and readiness of hatcheries available.
