Afariwaa Farms assures consumers of chicken for Christmas

Ashaiman, Aug 04,GNA -- The management of Afariwaa Farms and Livestock Products has assured the public of enough chicken in the next four months. Briefing newsmen on Wednesday, Nana Owusu-Afari, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, said despite the difficulties confronting the poultry sector Afariwaa Farms has managed to lay hands on day old chicks for other colleagues to breed for the yuletide.

''For now the farm is capable of supplying the local market with 540,563-day-old chicks and hopes to improve upon that.'' He said the company is producing at 10 per cent capacity. ''About three years ago we could produce six million day old chicken a year as against less than two million at present".

Mr Owusu-Afari said consumers call at the farm in their numbers to place orders but the company is unable to supply them because of difficulties in accessing loans to execute the business. He said the poultry sector is suffering set backs due to imported poultry products and called for a reversal to enable farmers feed the local market.

Mr Owusu-Afari appealed for a policy that would help the agriculture sector to grow and stressed the need to appreciate the contribution of livestock farmers to the economy by granting them soft loans to revitalise the sector. He expressed regret that governments only paid lip service to agriculture but do not make the sector profitable.