Govt releases ?3b for poultry farmers

The Government has released ?3 billion for disbursement to 600 poultry farmers throughout the country.

The money, which is being channelled through Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), forms part of the ?700 billion Emergency Social Relief Programme designed by the government to alleviate poverty.

Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation, disclosed this in an interview in Accra at the weekend.

The statement of the minister was also to throw more light on recent reports in the media to the effect that poultry farmers have expressed misgivings at the delay in making available to them promised financial assistance to procure the requisite inputs to get birds ready for Christmas.

According to Dr Nduom, a non governmental organisation (NGO) called Sinapi Aba had been tasked with co-ordinating the activities of the poultry farmers and that together with the ADB, it had already made substantial progress in that regard.

“Over the past week, about 488 poultry farmers who applied for the scheme have been vetted and had their applications approved and the monies are being paid to them to facilitate their operations,” he said.

He pointed out that owing largely to concerns by government to ensure the success of the project, a strict selection criteria has been instituted to enlist only qualified and competent poultry farmers for such financial assistance.

This, among others, is to ensure that they succeed and also repay the loans for the scheme to expand, for more farmers to benefit.

Dr Nduom noted that priority at this stage has been accorded small scale poultry farmers who already have some experience in the industry and they include those who have utilised their own initiative or means to acquire day old chicks and other inputs and are already poised to produce birds for the market.

He observed that while first time poultry farmers have the opportunity of being included in the scheme, they nevertheless have a bigger task of proving their competence and thus being supported for the current assistance.

Dr Nduom said that the ministry is rigorously monitoring the exercise to ensure that it is open, transparent and that it achieves the objective of creating more jobs, improving incomes and reducing poverty generally.