Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Asante, National President of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF), at the weekend said his outfit had signed an agreement with Ghana nuts to build the capacity of members, under the Agribusiness Trade Project. He said the project, which was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), would offer training to farmers and their workers to increase poultry production and work against diseases that affected the industry.

These were contained in a statement signed by the National President of GNAPF and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA). Mr Asante called on all regional, metropolitan, municipal and district associations to submit all their documents in order to benefit from the package.

He said USAID had also donated an Aflatoxin equipment (a machine that detects the quality of poultry feeds), which was stationed at the Department of Animal Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to the association to improve on production. Mr Asante appealed to government to consider banning or restricting the import of chicken parts into the country as such importations had negative effects on the domestic industry. He explained that governments in Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Burkina Faso had all banned the importation of chicken products which had helped their domestic poultry industry to grow. "And if government should ban it in Ghana here, it will give us the advantage to produce more to meet the demands of Ghanaians." Mr Asante said the influx of "cheaper and almost expired chicken into the country" was not only denying the government necessary revenue, but was also impeding the progress of the local poultry industry adding "we are capable of serving our people better provided these hurdles are cleared."

He further appealed to government to consider reducing taxes on feeds and other logistics in order to sustain the poultry industry stressing; "sometimes some of our members who import the inputs for their farms end up abandoning them due to high taxes, which are also inimical to our industry." Mr Asante gave the assurance that he would use his position to bring all the poultry farmers under one umbrella to chart the path for increased production and efficiency. "We also want to appeal to the Minister of Food and Agriculture to expedite action on the procurement of equipment that will facilitate our business in the coming months." 12 Sept. 10