Government urged to adequately support the poultry industry

Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), Aug. 17. GNA - Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa-West, has called on government to adequately support the agricultural sector, especially the poultry industry in the country.

He reminded the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to honour its promises to local poultry farmers in order to remove impediments in the way of players in the industry.

The MP was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday at Dormaa-Ahenkro on appropriate ways to solve the nation's perennial youth unemployment problem.

Mr Agyemang-Manu expressed the view that job creation could come in many forms including individual initiatives and joint ventures.

He noted that people in businesses should not only be obsessed with profit maximization, but that they should also focus on increased job creation for the youth as well as providing favourable working conditions for workers.

On the poultry industry at Dormaa, the MP acknowledged the huge impact it was making on the economic lives of the people in the area and expressed his desire to help accelerate growth in the sector.

He expressed appreciation for the establishment of new poultry farms in the two Dormaa districts and said given the needed support, the Dormaa Traditional Area alone should be capable of producing enough poultry products to meet Ghana's protein requirements.

Mr Agyemang-Manu said with the Bird Flu scare, local poultry farmers needed favourable government policies that would enable them to bridge the price gap between imported and locally-produced poultry products.

He mentioned occasional gluts coupled with price fluctuations and lack of processing facilities as some of the basic problems that needed to be resolved to enable the industry to flourish.

Mr Vincent Oppong Asamoah, Municipal Chief Executive, also told the GNA that he was hopeful a recent meeting between the Dormaa Poultry Farmers and the Minister of Food and Agriculture at Dormaa-Ahenkro would not only address most of the challenges in the industry but also open business opportunities for many farmers.

He announced that the poultry farmers were now coming together as one body to enable them to influence government policies to their advantage.