Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Loudorph Farms, Daniel Dolling has revealed that poultry farmers failed to benefit from the Planting for Food and Jobs because government was on a propaganda spree with the project.
He explained that the government was quick to export maize harvested under the program without considering if there was enough for internal consumption for both humans and poultry farms.
He told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “The ministry allowed maize to be exported out of the country. Meanwhile we didn’t have enough stock for us as farmers and even as a nation. But thinking that it could do propaganda with what it has achieved it said farmers and planters are making money for whatever they are selling so they allowed them to export to other countries. That is our plight.”
The poultry farmer lamented that poultry farmers in Ghana are really struggling as some have had to shut down their farms while others like him have had to reduce their number of birds and lay off workers.
He appealed to government to make a diligent count of the harvested grains we have available for the country before exporting to other countries. “The planting for food and jobs was a very good thing that happened to this nation and we also propose that should continue. But we shouldn’t over export and we must check on our stocks. We don’t have the correct data on stocks that we have as a nation so immediately we get a lot of maize, we think that we have a lot that we can export,” he added.
With barely two months to the Christmas season, the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana says it is still not able to meet the demand of feed needed for birds by its members and other poultry farmers in the country.
In July this year, 5 out of the 55 feed mills in the country had to shut down due to a lack of raw materials needed to make feed for the birds.
According to the association, the current demand for feed is four times higher than what they are supplying.